Any Other World
by Hobbsy3
Summary: When little Kili and Fili fall from Ered Luin into Earth, they are forced to run for their lives through our strange, modern world from the deadly Agency led by sadistic scientist Silas. Unaware that his nephews are alive, Thorin takes a company to retrieve their bodies, but instead they find themselves joining the chase that grows deadlier and more complex by the minute...
1. Chapter 1

**A new story? Already! Yes it is! For anyone reading my CSI fanfics, I am taking a temporary hiatus as depressingly I have lost the inspiration and spark for them :(**

**Anyway, here is a new story that I hope you will enjoy. Countless times we have seen OCs being sent into Middle Earth and trying to survive. How would it work if it was the other way round? Expect adventure, action, angst and family relationships (Of the non-romantical or incestal kind)**

**In this story, Kíli is the equivalent of ten years old, Fíli is about thirteen (55 and 60 in actual years)**

**Translations: In this story there will be other languages including spanish in chapter one. If it is not loosely translated in the story, Kili does not understand and therefore if the reader does not it just adds to the effect. Sorry for any Spanish mistakes, btw, I hope there are none! **

**What else need you know? I suck at first chapters so I'm sorry if it's not that great. I have actually got a plan for this story. I am supposed to be asleep right now. **

**Anyway, please, **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter One # The Fall #**

He scrambled to his feet and thorns scratched his cheeks. Thorns that should not have been growing in the bottom of a crevice in Ered Luin. Why were thorns growing in the bottom of a mine pit?

He wasn't in the cave anymore.

He was in a forest. How the hell did he get into a forest? He had closed his eyes for only seconds, bracing to hit the floor.

"Fíli!" He called shakily, looking around for his brother. When he didn't see him, Kíli's pounding heart beat faster and he called out again, his voice quavering again. "Fee?"

Strange bird calls were all that responded.

Wherever he was, all he had with him was what he had been holding moments before; his bow, a small bag containing a couple of apples, some bread, a spare cloak, a handful of arrows in a small quiver, half a flask of water, a knife and a tinderbox, and something small that was still stuck to his palm.

A bead from Fíli's hair.

Kíli felt his lip start to tremble, but he swallowed and pursed his lips instead. A true warrior may feel fear but will never show it, his Uncle had told him that many times. He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder, strapping his quiver to his back and nocking an arrow after deftly braiding Fíli's bead into his hair. He tucked the lone braid into the clasp that always held his hair away from his face – he hated braids falling into his face like Fíli's and Thorin's did. And he never had the patience to let his uncle, mother, or even his brother sit there and braid his hair.

Then he took a hesitant step forwards.

He had to be dreaming. There was no way that he could fall through a crevice in a cave and end up in a forest. It was impossible. And no one is ever trained for the impossible.

The child in him wanted to scream for Fíli or Thorin or Dwalin or even his mother, but the Heir of Durin inside him decided that silence was the best strategy. He would sneak around unseen until he found his way home. Surely he couldn't be _too_ far from the Blue Mountain? If he kept his head down he would be fine.

Before he could even decide which way to go, an agonised shriek from the east almost drew a scream from Kíli's own mouth and the fifty-five year old braced to run. However, curiosity had always been a quality of his (or a flaw, depending on how you looked at it) and he found himself drawing towards the sound. Ducking under branches and dodging sticks, Kíli snuck towards the source but paused when he reached a clearing, sheltering behind a bush to observe the strangest campsite he had ever seen.

The tents were bright blue, and he had never seen material like it. His curiosity was diverted by the sickeningly familiar red splatter that covered the flattened grass. Footsteps came closer and Kíli nearly stood forward to ask for help, but a man's voice begged in a strange language and the desperate tone froze the young dwarf where he stood. An ear shattering bang crashed through the air and the man's impassioned pleas ceased. Kíli watched in horror as a large red pool seeped towards him, and a chilling silence filled the air. Seconds later it broke when a gruff male voice growled foreign words in a cold voice. A woman emerged from the opposite tent with a wail. Frozen in place, Kíli yearned to help, but before he could move the banging sound was back, and this time Kíli saw what the bang did. His blood ran cold as a hole appeared in her forehead and blood splattered everywhere. She slumped to the floor, dead, and Kíli barely suppressed a whimper. He shrank into the floor, too afraid to move as the man's voice spoke again.

Footsteps approached and suddenly a huge man emerged around the side of the tent, holding a strange metal object in his hand. Though he didn't know what the object was, instinct fuelled Kíli's desperate scramble backwards.

He did not stand a chance.

The man barked at his companions in the strange language and grabbed Kíli by his hair.

Kíli screamed and thrashed around like a mad thing, swinging his iron arrows towards his attacker but the man simply snatched away his bow and lifted him clean off the floor.

"Get off!" Kíli yelled, kicking out at the man's legs, but height wise he didn't even reach the man's shoulders and the man was somehow more muscled than Dwalin and Thorin combined. Kíli was powerless to stop himself being carried into the midst of the bustling camp.

There was a lot of shouting and big people rushing around, ignoring the bloodied bodies on the floor of the woman and the man who had clearly lost their fight.

Kíli didn't stop fighting for a moment.

His elbow smashed into the man's chin, his feet connected with the man's legs but the man's knee smashed up into Kíli's lower back making his eyes water with pain.

Through the teary haze he could distinguish a little between men and even women that were running around in strange clothes.

The leader of the group was obvious. His clothes were even stranger looking than the seemingly durable green clothes of his men. His clothes were clean cut around the edges, it looked crisp and smart, but incredibly strange, and his grey hair and grey eyes made him seem both vulnerable and deadly.

There was an ice in his eyes that would have frozen the more sensible Fíli to smart silence.

Kíli on the other hand would not listen to the common sense telling him to still himself. He fought back harder than ever, not reacting when the man pointed a metal thing to his face. It was just a little lump of metal, and there was no way that it could have made the loud bangs that had made holes in the woman's head.

When he didn't react, the grey man snatched the bow from the man holding him and nocked an arrow, aiming steadily at Kíli's face.

Now Kíli froze every muscle, ready to snap back into action, but the man coldly spoke words that he could understand. "Do you wish to die on your own bow, boy?"

Kíli shook his head, his eyes trained on his own arrow.

"Stop. Fighting."

Kíli went limp in the big man's arms in total surrender, but the bow didn't waver.

The grey man snapped at several other men, and they swarmed forward.

Kíli found himself thrown against a tree, two men dragging his arms behind the tree and pinning them there, the others grabbing his legs.

"Get off me!" Kíli cried. "Let me go!"

The bow was back in his face. "Silence."

Kíli stilled, every single muscle tensed as the man started pulling at his clothes, inspecting them closely, especially the stitching around the bottom of his tunic. Then he grabbed Kíli's chin and roughly pulled his face up, studying Kíli's face.

Kíli grunted in protest as the man's cold hands poked at his chin and pulled his lips apart, looking at his teeth.

Kíli squirmed as the man tugged at his ears - why was he looking in his ears? What was he looking for?

Kíli growled as the man moved the skin above his eyebrows, effectively dragging the big brown eyes open. His heart thudded erratically - maybe they were slave traders? There had been word of a group of the evil men slipping through the multi-cultural towns at the base of the mountain.

If they were slave traders he would never see his family again.

The man then started to pat Kíli's chest, feeling the strong, tightly packed muscles that were already there, though Kíli was disgruntled to admit that other, younger dwarves had more muscle than he did. He'd been tall and slender for a while now.

Kíli struggled weakly, discomfort burning every vein. Another pair of men were rooting through his bag, but his attention was instantly returned to the grey man when he started the move towards his hair.

"No!" Kíli cried suddenly as the thin metal clasp was ripped away and his hair fell loose around his face, his new braid banging against his cheek.

He could feel the man pulling the solitary braid away from his head, fingering Fíli's bead and bringing his knife towards it.

"No!" His cries of fear turned to screams of anger and his weak struggles were strengthen with passion fuelled fear. "Don't, get off! Get off!"

They were going to cut his hair.

For the first time the man paused. "Why?"

"Don't cut it!" Kíli struggled. "Don't _touch _it!"

The man paused for the first time, but then he sliced the knife across the bottom of the braid just above the bead.

"NO!" Kíli yelled as the man took away the bed. To his shame, his cry was not down to pride. The only thing he had in this world from Fíli was that little metal bead. "Why are you doing thi…" a sudden thought filled his head and it all seemed to make sense. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to trespass, I'm lost!"

The grey man looked at him with new interest. "Lost?"

Kíli nodded, remembering his uncle's hostile reaction to trespassers in Erebor. He couldn't imagine how much of a threat he could pose to these men, but maybe the dead couple were a threat, maybe they thought he was with them, too. "I…I fell in the mountain, the Blue Mountains, and I landed here and I don't know how but I don't mean you any harm, I just want to go home!"

"What is your name?" the grey man asked.

Kíli hesitated.

_"Do not tell your name to those who dwell outside the mountain, Kíli. Within the mountain, your name will bring you home, but outside your name could bring more danger upon you." _

Thorin's words were embossed on his brain; his Uncle had repeated them almost every time they left the mountain. Sometimes he wondered if there was a mini Thorin in his head that constantly reminded him of the correct way to behave.

The man took the metal thing and aimed it just right of Kíli's head, pulling his finger back. Kíli flinched and shuddered as the ground behind him exploded.

"K-Kíli! I'm Kíli!" he closed his eyes.

"Kíli who?"

Kíli squeezed his eyes shut tighter and mumbled. "Son of Dís."

"And sister-son of Thorin Oakenshield?" Kíli could almost hear the raised eyebrow.

"Yes…" he whispered, wishing the ground would swallow him whole and spit him up in his nice warm bed in his nice safe room.

There was a long silence, followed by a viscous but muted argument in the other language. His eyes flew open as something pricked his skin.

"Ow!"

The grey man ignored him, swiping the newly drawn blood onto a little piece of white paper.

"Incredible…" he murmured, a smirk crossing his face. "He is truly not a son of man. We must start the experiments at once!"

"They were right!" one of the men gasped

"¡No puede creerlo!" another cried.

"When I get a good look at his brain…"

Kíli opened his mouth to ask who were right, but then he froze. _Get a look at his _brain? _Why, or more worryingly _how_ were they going to do that?_

He struggled hopelessly, fear trying to force whimpers from his throat. He clenched his teeth to stop the signs of weakness in their path.

"What experiments?" Kíli asked. "Who are you?"

"I am Silas. And the experiments are just…a way to get you home." The grey man's tone didn't soothe him at all.

"Home?"

"How old are you, Kíli?"

"Fifty-five." Kíli answered slowly.

Silas nodded, and snapped his fingers. The hands pinning him to the tree let go and he slumped down, though he instantly flew to his feet, pressing his back against the tree himself.

"Fifty-five? You're no more than a child, no?"

Kíli nodded his head vigorously, for once happy to admit to youth. Confusion intensified in his mind when he realised that his height was correct for his age, relative to the men. But they were not dwarves, he was the height of a child of man! Had he grown?

Silas snapped at the others in the strange tongue, and they stared at him until he snapped again. Then they were quick to throw Kíli's belongings back in his bag, thrusting it into the young dwarf's hands.

"Do you feel safer now?" Silas asked, but his tone sent shivers down Kíli's spine.

"A bit. Can I have my bow? Please?"

Silas laughed lightly. "Oh I don't think so. I don't know if I can trust you, Kíli, son of Dís. Gomez, take him to the truck."

The man who had dragged him from the wood walked up to him with a sickening smile, taking his arm and leading him towards a strange metal box. The men wanted them to trust him.

_Follow your gut, Kíli, _the Thorin in his mind reminded him, _When you have no other ideas, your gut will lead you true as long as you also _listen _to your heart and your head. _

Well, his heart just wanted to go home. His head was more muddled than Fíli trying to shoot an arrow. His gut it was.

His trained eyes scanned the clearing, his sharp ears picked up each sound. He slung his bag over his back and ran faster than he had ever run before.

Cries followed him, cries of shock and anger, but even without the bangs and flashes Kíli knew that he was being chased by more than voices so he did not hesitate for a second. He was lost, he was confused, he had just witnessed a murder and _Mahal _he just wanted to go home.

More bangs disturbed the ground by his feet and he stumbled, falling flat on his face. A small sliver of black caught his attention and he grinned, crawling on his stomach to the tiny cave. They would never be able to follow him in there.

_Check for goblins, you idiot! _He chastised himself as he entered the cave. Suddenly a figure came into sight and two terrified screams flared in the darkness.

***

"Kíli!" Fíli screamed, starting to throw himself down the crevice after his baby brother.

"Fíli, no!" Thorin choked, wrapping his arms around the chest of his older sister son and dragging him back to the relative safety of the bridge.

"No!" The blonde wailed. "Kíli! Thorin, let me go to him! _Keeleee_! " The sobbing broke the King's heart but he held Fíli tightly, regardless of the boy's struggles.

A triumphant cry met their ears as Dwalin bounded back into the cave with Glóin, Bifur, Balin and Bofur.

"I am proud to say that thanks to our hard work, the goblins-what happened?" As Dwalin rounded the corner and saw his royal kin his gloat melted faster than ice in the forges.

Fíli ignored the arrival of the others and yelled once more, trying to claw his way towards the ancient mine pit as his voice grew hoarse. "Kíli!"

"Where is Kíli?" Bofur asked slowly, not wanting to read between the lines.

"He...fell..." Thorin heard the waver in his voice as his eyes continued to stare at the cursed hole, his mind cursing every ancient dwarf who thought it a good idea in the first place to dig so far down.

"No!" Dwalin growled, his eyes widening in fear.

"We have to go and get him!" Fíli cried desperately, but Thorin held him back.

"We will. But it's a long way down, especially by the stairs and you cannot come."

"What?" Fíli's voice rose to a shriek.

Thorin's grip turned to iron and he turned Fíli around to face him, though his voice was gentle."Fíli, we know what we will most likely…what we _will_ find at the bottom. And I won't let you see that."

"No!" Fíli broke, but Thorin dragged him to Bofur, who had a solitary tear trailing down his own cheek.

"Take him home, drag him if you must. Tell Dis what happened; tell her about the attack, about the fall, about everything. Do not let _him_ follow us."

Bofur nodded tightly, his usually warm eyes closed off and distant as he looked at the staircase that would take them to the bottom of the ancient pit. He cleared his throat "Do ye have enough supplies? It's a long way down, at least two or three days."

Fíli let out a small moan and Balin nodded.

"We have packs here from the expedition." Balin's voice was gruff as he gestured to the bags in the corner that had been abandoned during the battle with the goblins.

He passed a couple around, but Fíli and Kíli's lighter packs were already gone. One was on Fíli's back, but the other had gone with the owner - when the goblins had attacked the boys had been ordered to run. They were barely equivalent to teenagers in the ages of men – indeed Kíli himself would have been barely ten years old had he been born a man, and Thorin did not want them to fight.

Balin had never felt such intense guilt. He was the one who had convinced Thorin to take the brothers to on the expedition to look further into the mountain. He was the one who was supposed to be on watch when the goblins attacked. He was the one who told them to run. He was the one who –

"Balin." Thorin's pained voice snapped him from his self-pity and he passed the king-in-exile a bag. "Where's Glóin?" Thorin asked suddenly, but even as the words left his mouth the red-haired dwarf reappeared with the other members of the expedition company who had been separated from them in the fight.

Óin, Bombur, Nori, Dori, and Ori all looked sombre, and a couple even looked close to tears. Thorin swallowed. "Let's go."

"Thorin!" Fíli begged one last time, but Bofur took a firm grip on his arm and started to gently pull him away.

***

"Por favor, no sé nada!" The figure cried and Kíli staggered backwards, terrified. The thing in front of him looked to be the size of a boy, but in its hands it held the most wicked knife Kíli had ever seen.

"Please don't hurt me! I just want to go home!" Kíli begged, but the thing wasn't listening.

"Por favor no haga daño a mí, no sé nada! No quiero morir, no hablare nada a nadie!" The whimpers sounded so similar to Kíli's own pleas that the dwarf quietened long enough to look at the boy's face. It was a boy, he decided. A son of man, probably.

"Don't you speak the Common Tongue?" He questioned suspiciously.

The boy stared at him fearfully, and Kíli held up his hands.

"I'm not going to-"

"This way, Silas!"

The overhead yells froze both boys and neither breathed until stampedes of feet thundered over their heads. Kíli counted to one hundred and then let out a deep breath.

He held out his hands further to show that he was unarmed, and leant against the cave wall. Inside, it was just tall enough for him to stand up. Slowly, the boy lowered his knife.

"Quién eres? Como te llamas? Qué quieres?" the boy fired questions at Kíli, who shrugged hopelessly. The boy frowned. "N-no hablas Español?"

So this boy didn't speak the Common Tongue. Well, Kíli was no stranger to improvisation. He pointed at his chest, and said "Kíli" firmly, before pointing and shrugging at the boy.

Suspisciously, the boy replied. "Enrique."

"Enrique?" Kíli repeated. He had never heard such a strange name.

Enrique gave a little smile, before screwing up his face as if trying to remember something. "You why here?"

Kíli covered his face with his hands as if playing peek-a-boo. "Hiding. From bad men."

Enrique nodded. "Yo también." Then he pointed at himself to tell Kíli that he too was hiding.

"Are you from this place? Where are we?" Kíli asked excitedly, but Enrique frowned.

"No speak Engleesh good."

"What's Engleesh?" Kíli questioned, but Enrique stared at him blankly.

_Maybe it's their name for the Common Tongue? _Kíli thought. He thought carefully, before using the sandy floor to draw the mountains he knew so well. A rough drawing, but a distinctive one, the unique eagle like shape of several of the mountains recognisable to any who had passed the mountains in the flesh. He held up his arms in a 'where/what/why/how' gesture, but Enrique shook his head.

He did not recognise the mountain.

Kíli's heart fell.

"Te has perdido?" Enrique asked, before drawing his own picture on the floor. A stick man was surrounded by trees with a question mark over his head, and Kíli understood. _Are you lost?_

Kíli nodded vigorously, and pointed at the boy with a 'you?' type of shrug.

Enrique's nose wrinkled in concentration. "No… Me live in ciudad…the, ur… city."

"With your family?"

Enrique recognised enough of the world to draw in the rough sand of the floor a stick man family of a mother, a father, a tall girl and a little boy. He pointed at the boy and then at himself and the parents. "Yo, Mama y Papa." Then he pointed at the girl. "Natalia. Mi hermana. See-ter."

"Sister?" Kíli guessed and the boy nodded.

Enrique shrugged pointedly at him, and Kíli traced a man, a woman, and two smaller boys into the sandy floor, pointing at each in turn. "Uncle Thorin, Ma, me...or yo? And Fíli."

"Fíli?" Enrique giggled. "Kíli y Fíli?"

Kíli nodded, unoffended. He was proud of their rhyming names, but obviously people here (wherever here was) had different customs when it came to names. Absently, Kíli's finger drew across the sand, creating a scene that looked much like his living room at home. Then he drew a little house next to it. Living in chambers in the mountain, his house had never really been a square with a triangular lid, but Kíli wanted to get his point across, and anyway, his friend Ori was the artist.

"Donde?" Enrique asked, lifting his hands up in a questioning gesture. Kíli pointed at the mountains he had already drawn.

"The Blue Mountains." Kíli nodded, pointing to the blue top the younger boy wore.

Enrique's eyebrows furrowed and he took a slab of rock out of a bag so small Kíli hadn't noticed it until now. The rock was black, and incredibly shiny, but Kíli had no idea what the purpose of it was. Suddenly the boy pressed something and it lit up.

Kíli yelped and scrambled away and the boy looked confused.

"No has visto un iPad antes?"

"iPad?" Kíli whispered, and the boy nodded at his magic rock.

"No te preocupas." Enrique insisted, beckoning Kíli over. "Is…happy…"

Though the sentence made no sense, the young dwarf slowly crept closer. Pictures made of light shone from the screen, and as Enrique dragged his finger across the smooth rock, the pictures on it changed.

It _was_ magic!

Kíli watched with wide eyes as his companion pressed on one of the pictures. A map of a strange place dominated by oceans appeared instantly and Enrique repeated his question happily.

"Donde?"

Kíli's mouth dropped open as he stared at the map. Enrique scrutinised his expression before tapping on a city with a little red flag.

It zoomed right in and Kíli felt a little ill. What was this thing? Where was that place?

"Aqui." Enrique pointed at the ground where they were. "Sevilla."

"Sev-ee-ya?"

"Si. Sevilla. Donde está tu casa? Where you home?"

Wishing he'd paid more attention to Balin in lessons, Kíli studied the map. He recognised nothing.

"It's not there." Kíli whispered. If this was where he was now, it was huge! He would never find his way home, not if he lived to be a thousand years old.

Meanwhile, Enrique tapped away on his iPad rock, producing words that Kíli could read with a strange language on the other side of the rock.

_We need to get back to the city. My sister speaks English well, she can help us both!_

Kíli nodded warily. They didn't have much of a choice – he had few supplies and he needed help. His gut trusted the little boy, but his head wasn't so sure. Either way, he had little choice.

Homesick and frightened, the young dwarf prince followed the small Spanish child out into the light.

Silas clenched his teeth together and he looked at the burly muscular man before him. Fernando Gomez had caught his attention during a cage fight when the fighting machine destroyed fifteen opponents with only a minute's rest in between. The man could crush bones in moments. The man could incapacitate Silas in seconds. The man could kill indiscriminately.

The man was trembling on his knees.

"You let two _children _escape."

Gomez winced but said nothing. He knew better than that.

"It seems that the time for extraction has begun, Gomez, but you let our first specimen loose! And the boy no more than a child. If we want anything from this, things will be done more carefully around here from now on."

"Why Enrique Cardoza?" Gomez asked hoarsely. "I do not mind killing him, but knowing why would be nice…"

"We must destroy the whole family for the work of the scum to be erased. Now, listen, Gomez. I want that little dwarf brought to me alive. I want him on an operating table. I want to test his endurance, I want to find out just how much the 'hardy' race of the dwarves can take. I want to know if his organs are like ours, I want to know his anatomical strengths and weaknesses. I want to find out as much as I can about these people. I want that boy brought here now." Silas growled. "I have been waiting too long for this."

Bang.

Gomez didn't even know he'd been shot before he hit the floor, dead. Silas turned to the man behind him.

"You heard me, Parkinson. Go and get me that dwarf. Now."

As the Englishman nodded and stalked out, Silas got into the van with a smug little smile. The dwarf wouldn't last a day in this world alone, even if he should reach the city.

Everything from the animals to the zebra crossings would be completely surreal, and no one would believe a word he said if he tried to ask the way home. His supplies were pitiful and his main weapon was in Silas' hands. He did not speak the language, and he was alone.

He was a child. Soon, Silas would get his rewards.

Soon, Silas could have his fun.

**I have so much more I want to put in the introduction, this feels a bit…well, schmeur! Anyways, this story will focus on several main themes – **

_**Family relationships **_

_**Adaptation and survival **_

_**Cultural and language boundries**_

_**The bad idea that is the mixing of worlds. **_

**And possibly more that I have forgotten. **

**I hope I have captured your interest, next chappy will be up soon! This chapter ****_was _****supposed to be a little muddled to show the confusion Kili and the others are experiencing, but many things will be cleared up in chapter two :) **

**Thanks for reading. **


	2. Chapter 2: A Whole New World

**Hiya! Thanks to all the reviews, follows and even favourites! I am so sorry for the wait, this chapter has been rewritten COUNTLESS times. **

**NOTE: This story is not about Natalia and Enrique, the OCs in this chapter. Their role will be big in the beginning but it is the story of Tolkien's characters. The OCs in this story won't take it over – they just have a specific role to play. **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Two # A Whole New World #**

Kíli didn't speak to the other boy much as they trekked towards the city

The language barrier was not the only thing stopping his tongue from wagging like it usually would – for one thing the younger child seemed just as scared as he was, and Kíli would bet his bow that Enrique did not completely trust him. He didn't completely trust Enrique, either. In fact he hardly trusted Enrique at all.

Kíli focussed on putting one foot in front of the other and the strange looking city of 'Sevilla' that was his ultimate goal. As it stood, his plan consisted of following Enrique to his sister, asking her how he could get to the Blue Mountains and then taking off as soon as possible.

As they came closer to the city Kíli began to doubt his plan when four hours into the walk, a low growling met his ears. The noise grew louder and louder in seconds and he whirled around to see a huge...thing...hurtling towards him.

Terror filled his heart at what sort of creature could move at that speed, growling for that long without drawing breath and he panicked. Fight or flee? Flee or fight? What would Thorin do?

_Oh Fíli, where are you?_

Enrique, on the other hand, was simply confused at the older boy's behaviour, moving calmly to the side of the road himself to allow the car to pass.

Kíli looked like a rabbit frozen in the headlights, which was an appropriate simile under the circumstances.

"Kíli!" He urged the strange boy to the side of the road, and Kíli staggered towards him, flinching as the car flew past.

"What was that?" Kíli's shrug shook, but Enrique could gather its meaning.

"Un coche." He shot the boy an unmistakeable are-you-an-actual-idiot look.

"Coche?" Kíli asked weakly.

Enrique nodded warily. Who was this boy?

He did not rightly know why he was trusting Kíli, but his strange clothes reminded Enrique of parties that his parents would throw, where people would dress up as elves, hobbits, dwarves and all sorts of other strange things from the fantasy world his parents loved so much.

The familiarity comforted Enrique, who had been left in the cave by his parents two days ago with instructions to return to the city if they weren't back in a day. When they hadn't returned he was afraid, and as he now trudged down the hot road, he pretended that Kíli was a great warrior from a magical kingdom who had been stranded on earth, and that he could not return home without Enrique's help.

His imagination ran away with him to places where he fought monsters with a mysterious warrior and his sister, unaware of how strongly his daydreams reflected reality.

Kíli didn't daydream. As the daylight started to fade and they drew closer to the city, Kíli was too intrigued and afraid to daydream, not to mention physically and mentally exhausted.

The number of 'coche's increased as they neared the buildings, and though Kíli quickly learnt not to panic when they passed him he still flinched when the big 'autobus's passed him.

The people of the city were the strangest folk he had ever seen. There were men, woman and children, but no dwarves or elves. Many had more tanned skin and darker hair than most people Kíli knew, and some had skin that was even darker. That was not as strange, though, as the hair colours he saw. He was used to seeing brown hair, black hair, ginger hair, blonde hair and grey hair, but some people here had _blue _hair, or _pink _hair. It was very unnerving. Their clothing was almost as diverse as their faces, and most of the woman wore short skirts or trousers that showed most of their legs and arms, outfits that no self-respecting dwarf woman would ever wear. Not wanting to stare at anyone, Kíli turned his eyes to the buildings.

They were so tall...

Walking deeper and deeper into the city, Kíli felt trapped by the sheer height of the buildings. Some seemed to have been thrown up quickly but others were designed so intricately that Kíli's mother would have been speechless.

Despite his attempt at shrinking into himself, many people stared at him as he passed, and often his face would flush with embarrassment, though his cheeks were already pink from the heat. He finally started to cool down as the sun went down, but darkness didn't fall.

Glass orbs filled with light were everywhere - in buildings, in the street and even in the 'coche's, which, Kíli discovered after a very timid inspection, were vehicles, and the people sat _inside_ the strange metal shells.

The orange glow of the orbs filled the city, and even though there were no stars in the sky it was never dark.

Kíli didn't like it. It wasn't natural.

The city was still bustling despite the late hour, and Kíli struggled to keep his mouth from hanging open as even more beautiful buildings came into sight.

One stood out in particular and Kíli guessed that it was a palace.

It had to be, it was so beautiful and the stonework so intricate. Not to mention the fact that it was huge. The modest royal halls in the Blue Mountains were nothing compared to it. The king who lived there must have been very impressive.

Enrique caught him staring. "El catedral."

"Catedral?"

"Si."

Kíli tore his eyes from the incredible structure as Enrique made a bee line towards a bar that seemed packed full of people.

If they were enemies and he went in there he would not get out again.

He took a long deep breath and followed Enrique into the bar. Music bombarded his ears and as they wormed their way to the front of the crowd Kíli's mouth dropped open and Enrique whispered "flamenco" proudly.

A man sat on a chair strumming a strange, stringed instrument but most of the music came from a woman. She was singing with such intensity and passion that it gave Kíli chills. Next to her, another woman danced, her hands clapping and her feet stomping as she did, adding further depth to the melody. Even her face was part of the dance, concentration and heartache splashed across her features.

Suddenly the dance ended and the women relaxed and smiled. The audience clapped and cheered and the performers smiled, speaking in Enrique's language before dispersing.

Instantly Enrique surged forward. "Natalia!"

The dancer turned and her eyes widened at the Enrique's bedraggled appearance, only to narrow as she saw Kíli. She gestured to a door behind her and Enrique tugged Kíli along gently.

Kíli slowly followed the younger boy into the room only to be slammed against the wall, a hand over his mouth and a knife pressed to his throat.

The woman hissed at him in the other language, and Enrique cried out 'Ingles!', his voice tainted with fear as he backed away, wondering if he had made a mistake trusting the other boy.

"Who are you? What did you to do him? Scream and I cut your throat!"

Kíli started stammering the moment the woman's hand left his mouth. "I d-didn't do anything, I-"

"You lie!" She hissed, pressing the knife tighter, her black eyes as wild as her curly dark hair.

"Who sent you?"

"No one!" Kíli choked. "I'm lost! I'm just lost!"

"What are you?"

"I'm a dwarf!" Kíli's answer was instant, but he was too afraid to be proud as he normally would.

The black eyes narrowed and she pulled up his shirt with her free hand, glancing at his wrist. She gasped and traced her fingers over his skin and then flinched away, stumbling backwards.

Kíli looked down at his wrist, crying out when he saw what had chased her away. Around his wrist was what could only be described as a black inking or a tattoo of a circlet that had definitely not been there before. Silver runes ran through the intricate lines, spelling out 'Durin' on his arm in Khuzdul. If it had been a bracelet it would have been beautiful.

"What did you do to me?" he cried, and as the knife hit the floor with a clang, Kíli raced for the door, but to dismay it was somehow locked. He whirled back and stared at her. "What did you do, will it come off?"

"It's proof of your heritage…" the woman whispered, before shrinking into herself. "I'm sorry. I thought that you were going to hurt my brother."

"I don't want to hurt anyone! Just let me go, please!" Kíli whispered, and Enrique tugged on the woman's sleeve, speaking adamantly.

She turned back to him. "Your name is Kíli?" He nodded slowly at her question. "I am Natalia, Natalia Garcia Cardoza, Enrique is my brother."

As per usual, Kíli's fear couldn't completely subdue his curiosity. "You have three names."

She gave a light laugh. "I do. You have one."

He nodded again, before looking down at the floor. "Please let me go."

"Where will you go?"

The question startled him, not in the least because he didn't know the answer. "I..."

"You said you were lost. Where is your family?"

Protective instinct clamped Kíli's lips shut.

Natalia sighed. "Where did you come from?"

_Don't trust her, Kíli, don't trust anyone here! She could betray you, hurt you, and you are powerless to get away!_ The Thorin in his head instructed.

But Kíli wasn't Thorin.

He was exhausted, alone and terrified. He had seen enough alien things to satisfy a lifetime, and he had been searched, chased, and attacked.

Kíli had had enough.

"The Blue Mountains. That's...where I live, where my family are. That's where I was."

"Enrique, vas a ver la tele. How did you get here?" Natalia asked softly as Enrique left the hall.

Kíli jumped when voices and music started suddenly from the room the boy had entered, but Natalia simply closed the door.

"I fell." Kíli whispered, allowing everything to tumble from his mouth. "We were running from goblins and I fell down a...well, I think it was an old mine shaft. I remember falling and falling and I thought it would never end and I closed my eyes and then I had stopped falling but I didn't crash. I opened my eyes and I was in a forest and..."

"Okay, okay..." Natalia soothed as he sped up. "What happened then?"

"I didn't know what to do so I started walking. I heard screaming and I went towards it and there was a campsite...I...they...a man and a woman, I saw them die."

"How?"

"A bang and then there was a hole in her head." Kíli whispered, wincing.

Natalia swallowed. "What happened next?"

"The men found me. One dragged me into the campsite and then the pinned me to a tree. They...searched me and the man looked in my ears, my mouth, everywhere. He asked me some questions, and when I started answering he let me go and gave me my bag. But they...pricked me with a little needle thing and then they said I wasn't human and then he said to put me in a van and I don't know what that meant-"

"Breathe, Kíli." She reminded.

He dutifully took a deep breath before continuing at a slightly slower pace. "I heard one of them talking about looking at my brain. That...scared me so I listened to my gut and then I ran. They were chasing me, I fell and I saw a little cave so I hid. That's where I found Enrique. And he had a rock which lit up-"

"His iPad?"

"Yes."

"That's not a rock." She laughed lightly.

"What is it?"

"I'll explain later. What happened next?"

"The writing on the iPad said that we should go to the city and that his sister...you...spoke English and you could help me, but I don't know what English is..."

"You're speaking it."

"But..."

"I know you must be very confused, Kíli."

_Do you think so? _Kíli thought sarcastically. His eyes continuously flickered to the knife, something that didn't go unnoticed by the woman.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Kíli."

He was too tired to protest, but he glared at her regardless.

"I'm not going to let you go, either."

Panic flared in Kíli's eyes and his mouth popped open. "Please-"

"I _can't _let you go, Kíli."

"Why?" he struggled to silence Fíli's chiding in his head. _Puppy dog eyes won't get you everywhere, Kíli._

"Where would you go? What would you do?"

"I'll...I'll...I'll go back to the forest, and find my way home."

"There is no way back that way. I can help you, Kíli."

"I don't want any help, I just want to go home."

Natalia sighed. "I can help you _get_ home, but you have to work _with_ me."

"Where am I?"

"Seville, in the south of Spain in a place called Earth."

Kíli sank down the wall, wincing only mildly as the woman darted forward, shocked by the whitening of the child's face. "I'm not in Middle Earth anymore?"

"No, you're not." Natalia said softly.

"Am I dead?" Natalia looked shocked and Kíli continued. "Is this what death is?"

"No! No, you're not dead. If you were you couldn't go home."

"But I can?"

"Maybe. We'll try. But for now you need to sleep. And shower."

Kíli frowned. "Shower?"

"Come on." Natalia pulled Kíli gently to his feet, leading him into a tiled room. "Wait here."

Minutes later she returned with a pile of clothes and a towel. Kíli watched in awe as she showed him how to use a shower and what the various gels and potions did. She washed her own hair in the sink to show Kíli that the shampoo and conditioner were safe, and she showed him how to lock the door. Then she left.

For a full five minutes, Kíli just stood there with the door locked.

_Don't make yourself vulnerable, Kíli._

Thorin in his head wasn't helping.

A familiar surge of rebellion filled his mind and he took a deep breath. He removed his tunic, slowly stripping off his clothes and timidly sliding open the shower door.

He pulled the lever and gasped as water pounded down on his head.

Now Kíli hated baths. Hated them. They were a waste of time and just plain boring.

But as it turned out, Kíli _loved_ showers.

In only a few minutes he was brave enough to squeeze a little shampoo onto his hand and sniff it tentatively.

It smelled nice.

Taking a deep breath he worked it through his hair. It felt nice too, though it stung like crazy when it got in his eyes.

When he finished he dressed quickly, and the comfortable clothes felt foreign on his skin, and he felt almost naked without the heavy leathers of his dwarven clothes, but Natalia was right, they _were_ filthy.

He looked at himself in a mirror and couldn't remember the last time he had been so clean. Kíli couldn't help but giggle quietly, and he shook his head vigorously, shaking water from his hair, before tousling it up again and banishing the sleekness of his wet hair.

Fíli had straight, tamed hair.

Kíli didn't.

He swallowed the lump in his throat that threatened to suffocate him when thoughts of his brother filled his head.

Once again fatigue swooped over him and he slipped out of the room. Natalia came into the hall when she heard the door open.

"Here, follow me." Kíli clutched his bag and clothes tightly to his chest and followed her into a spacious guest bedroom. "I'll wash those." She took his clothes and he reluctantly let go of them. "Are you hungry?"

Kíli's eyes lit up and he nodded shakily. "I'll get you some paella."

"Some what?"

Natalia winked at him and disappeared, returning moments later with a plate of food. "This is called paella. Rice, saffron, chicken… some vegeatbles…"

Kíli gratefully accepted the food, trying to eat with what his mother called 'men manners', scooping the food into his mouth more carefully than usual. He mumbled his thanks and she smiled, leaving the room and pointing at a switch.

"This is called a light switch, it turns the light off, makes it dark. Goodnight."

And with that the door closed.

A starving Kíli licked the bowl, placing it down on the bedside table and tip-toeing to the other side of the room. He hesitantly flicked the switch and the room plunged into darkness.

He scampered across to the bed and snuggled up under the blankets, his eyes remaining wide open in the dark.

Despite the exhaustion, suddenly Kíli couldn't sleep.

_Fíli, Thorin, Mama…I wish you were here. I don't know what to do! I'm so scared, I don't know what to do. I just want to sleep…_

He grabbed his bag from the floor and buried his nose in the coarse fabric.

It smelt of earth and metal, of smoke and of stone. It smelt like home.

For the first time in years, Kíli son of Dis cried himself to sleep.

_~ The Hobbit ~_

_"It's okay, Fee, I won't let you fall." Kíli's childish sing song voice met his terrified brother's ears, but Fíli shook his head. _

_"I can't!" _

_"Of course you can!" Kíli was ten years old, barely more than a toddler, bur he had a comforting grip on his older brother's arm. "It's just a bridge, Fee!" _

_They were on the way to the market with their mother and her friends, but they had fallen behind a little when they encountered some playful fox clubs. _

_The big bridge crossing the river where they normally crossed was being repaired after a storm, and the only alternative were two thick ropes stretching from one side to the other directly above each other, about nine feet and six feet above the strong water. _

_"It's not a bridge, it's some string!" _

_"If it could hold Nora it can hold you, Fíli." Kíli reasoned innocently, referring to his mother's large friend. _

_"But _I _can't hold _it_!" Fíli protested. _

_"C'mon Fee, I don't want to be here alone for too long!" As Kíli opened his eyes wide and drew his eyebrows together, Fíli knew that his little brother was playing the 'I'm sweet, vulnerable and innocent so give me my way now' card, but it wasn't going to work. _

_"I can't, Kíli, I'm sorry." _

_"Well I'll go on my own then." _

_"No! Kíli, wait!" Fíli cried as the little boy climbed up the makeshift stairs and reached to the highest rope. Kíli was so tiny that holding onto the higher rope stretched his entire body so that he was on his tip-toes. "You'll fall!" _

_"Don't be a worry-guts, Fíli." Kíli chided, shuffling along the rope. _

_Fíli cursed. His little brother had left him with two options – follow his brother onto the bridge or wait there like a little coward. _

_He followed his brother onto the bridge, almost throwing up when it swayed. He squeezed his eyes shut and started shuffling along, just praying that it would be over soon. _

_He slipped slightly and whimpered, but something warm covered his hand. _

_He looked up into Kíli's warm, earnest eyes as his little brother smiled, squeezing his hand. _

_"It's _okay_, Fee. I won't let you fall." _

_Kíli's face distorted and grew and then they were running through the halls of Ered Luin. _

_"Look out!" Kíli cried suddenly as Fíli stumbled, falling towards a sheer drop on his right. To Fíli's horror it was too late as the momentum from his run pushed him over the edge. His hands managed to grip the rock wall but they were slipping quickly. _

_A strong arm grabbed his and Kíli screamed "Thorin!" before turning back to his brother with a smile. _

_"It's okay, Fee. I won't let you fall." _

_"Thank you..." Fíli gave a breathless chuckle, but goblin screeches sent shudders down his spine. _

_If Kíli was holding him he wasn't running. Kíli started to pull him up, but the goblins were practically on top of them by the time the two boys were safely on the pathway. _

_"Run!" Fíli yelped, throwing Kíli in front of him. _

_Kíli's previous impassioned cry for help had paid off though, and Thorin chased the goblins pursuing them, slashing them to pieces with his sword. _

_They ran even faster, dodging cracks and crevices and occasionally steering each other from danger. Soon Thorin was right behind them, and the goblins were all but gone. _

_"This is kinda fun!" Kíli grinned at Fíli as he ran. _

_"What?" The blond screwed up his nose, dodging a large stalagmite. _

_"In a weird way, of course." _

_Fíli couldn't help but laugh, before yelling, "Look out!" _

_Kíli turned just in time to duck a low hanging rock. _

_"Look ahead, you idiot!"_

_Kíli nodded, not taking offence at his brother's rebuke. Instead he just called out with a questioning tone. "Fíli?"_

_"Yeah?" Fíli yelled back._

_"I have-" _

_It happened in less than a second. _

_One moment Kíli was in front of him and then he was gone, falling through the air at alarming speed with a startled and terrified scream. "Feeeeee!"_

"_Kíli!"_

Fíli woke with a scream, reaching out to the lump that he knew should be in the next bed. "Kíli, Kíli!"

It was just a dream, right?

A desperate yearning, stronger than he had ever felt before, took over Fíli. He needed to hug his little brother; he needed Kíli to complain about being woken up, he needed to know that the younger dwarf was okay; he needed to _know _that it was just a dream, just a dream...

The door opened and the soft light of a candle filled the doorway. With his mother's pained murmur it all came back to him. "Fíli?"

Dis watched her son as a fresh wave of fear flooded his already horrified face, his clenched fist clutching the sheets of the bed that was pushed up to his own.

Kíli's bed.

"I...I thought it was a dream."

Dís felt a wail rise in her throat as her eldest child choked, but for Fíli's sake she swallowed her cries and crossed to his bed. "Fíli..."

"It has to be a dream!" he whispered hoarsely.

Dís shook her head, tears trailing dismally down her cheeks. "It wasn't a dream, Fíli."

To her surprise, Fíli did not wail. He did not sob. He did not cry.

Fíli did nothing.

"Breathe, Fíli." Dís warned gently, but Fíli looked at her blankly.

"I can't…hurts…" Fíli whispered.

Dís reached out and pulled Fíli close and then he cried, sobbing his brother's name into his mother's chest. She knew no words to comfort him, not when she was in so much pain herself.

All she could do was rock him back and forth like an infant until he cried himself to sleep once more. Dís slowly lay her slumbering son in his bed. It was still the middle of the night, only an hour had passed since Bofur brought Fíli home.

Broken and exhausted, Dís staggered into her own bedroom and tried to muffle her sobs with a pillow.

Fíli opened his eyes.

He was as silent as a ghost; he slipped across the room and slung his bag over his shoulder, pulling out a piece of paper from a nearby book. The scratching of his quill across paper was painfully loud but it didn't carry out of the room.

He left the note on his bed and padded across the floor to his bedroom door. He'd always been quieter than Kíli, who walked like an Oliphant, but he was extra careful to open the door as silently as possible, which was a good thing as Bofur was dozing in front of the fire, having refused the bed that Dís had offered.

As soon as he got to the door he would be as good as free. The guards would never notice him...

His footsteps were barely audible as he crossed the room, and Bofur didn't stir at all.

Fíli felt a pang of sympathy for the toymaker and the trouble he would inevitably be in when Thorin found out that Fíli had escaped, however much Fíli would try to take the blame himself.

It appeared that the older dwarf had been crying when he slipped into sleep - the tear tracks were dried and visible on his cheeks.

Fíli lifted the latch.

It was Thorin's fault, really.

He should have known that Fíli would do whatever it took to find his baby brother. Fíli narrated his movements in his head to try and achieve silence. _Push open the door, step out-_ clunk!

He froze momentarily as the latch fell from his fingers with a bang that woke Bofur instantly.

"Fíli, no!" The dwarf cursed, and Fíli sprang out of the door.

He could hear his mother tumble from her bed, he could hear Bofur roaring - "Dis, he's running!" He could hear his mother's impassioned wails for him to come back but he couldn't.

He ran straight past the startled guards out of the gate, heading for the tunnels they'd explored the previous day, Bofur's heavy but swift footsteps right behind him.

"Fíli! Stop! You'll fall!"

As he chased the idiotic dwarf prince through the unstable corridors, Bofur didn't think about the repercussions for himself should Fíli fall, not once. All that went through his head were images of Fíli's broken body lying on top of Kíli's, a nightmare that was fast shaping into reality.

Bofur ran for Fíli, Fíli ran for Kíli. It took him only five minutes to reach the staircase Thorin and the others took, and he started trying to get down immediately. Bofur finally managed to catch up, and he grabbed Fíli around the waist.

"Stop, Fíli!"

Fíli struggled with his whole body, thrashing around and demanding to be released. He fought and fought and fought and Bofur did not yield until he suddenly cried out in unmistakable pain, falling away from Fíli.

Horrified, Fíli whirled around. "Bofur!"

The older dwarf groaned, his hand clamped next to a small knife jutting from his arm.

Fíli's small knife. "I'm sorry! Oh, Bofur! I didn't..."

"S'okay." Bofur groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. "Your bag's gotta hole in...not your fault."

Fíli's guilt didn't shrink in the slightest. "I-I-what do I do?"

Bofur grimaced, pulling the knife out.

"You shouldn't do that!" Fíli yelped, but Bofur shook his head, instantly clamping his hand over the area.

"It's okay, Fíli. It's all superficial, I've had worse."

"Superficial?" Fíli cried, but he could see the incredibly shallow stab wound.

The blade may have pierced all the way across his arm, but it was only a little way under his skin, and nowhere near any arteries.

Painful, but not deadly.

"You should still see a healer." Fíli whispered, horrified by what he had done, as Bofur wrapped a strip of relatively clean cloth around his arm tightly.

"Aye. And you should take me to one."

Fíli looked torn, and he shuffled forward to help the dwarf, at least for a moment. "Bofur, he's my baby brother."

As Bofur sighed a reply, Fíli's shuffling feet slipped in something wet and sticky. Fíli barely had time to scream as Bofur's blood carried him over the edge of the staircase.

"No!" Bofur yelled, throwing himself onto his stomach and grabbing the young dwarf's hand with his good arm.

"Bofur!" Fíli's call trembled. "Bofur, I'm sorry!"

"I know lad, it's alright." Unsure of how he had managed to keep his tone so level, Bofur reached down with his other hand, wincing but holding Fíli's arm tightly nonetheless. "I got ya, Fíli, the guards will be here soon."

Fíli nodded a little, understanding that even without his wounded arm, in Bofur's current position on his stomach it would be next to impossible to pull him up with the strength his arms alone. "Your arm...Bofur-"

"It's fine." Bofur shook his head, the flaps of his hat sending a cloud of dust and little rocks onto Fíli's face. "Sorry!"

"Tha-achoo!"

Bofur yelled through gritted teeth as Fíli jolted and a searing pain flew up his arm. He automatically let go of Fíli's hand with one arm. "Urgh!"

"I'm so-ah, ah-"

"No!" Bofur cried, and Fíli grimaced as he sneezed once more. Bofur's hand was so tightly attached to Fíli's arm that Bofur slipped with the young dwarf.

Right over the edge.

Fíli had no idea how much guilt could intensify in a fraction of a second. As he fell down, down, down, Fíli could hear his own screams mixing with Bofur's and he _hated_ himself.

His stupidity and carelessness had killed Kíli, and now poor, loyal Bofur would pay the same price.

He deserved the death that would meet him at the bottom…

_I'm coming, Kíli. _

_I deserve to fall._

_Oh Mahal, why hasn't it stopped?_

_I'm sorry I'm sorry I'm sorry…_

_"Don't worry, Fee, I won't let you fall." _

_I'm sorry, Kee, I'm sorry I let you fall._

After seconds that felt like an age, Fíli's open eyes saw the bottom of the shaft in time for one last thought to flash through his head.

_I don't want to die. _

**I hope that this was okay! :) I rewrote this so many times and I actually cut a lot off of the end of it, so HOPEFULLY the next chapter will be soonish! I am sorry for the wait, I hope it was worth it. **

**I'm sorry if this was boring, I thought it was but that might just be because I read, reread, wrote and rewrote this so many times. **

**The action will really begin in chapter three, along with more explanations, I don't want to give everything away yet :P**

**I really hope that it wasn't boring, please PLEASE tell me if it was or wasn't! Like I said on my last chapter of Where I Belong, my mother thinks that fanfiction is a waste of my time. What do you think? **

**Jeez, I don't sound very confident, do I :P**

**Thanks for reading!**


	3. Chapter 3: Falling To Flying

**I lied. I'm sorry it took a while but this chapter has been HELL to write. I swear, I don't know what's happening to me, my writing is becoming awful and slow, so I'm sorry. **

**Thank you for my reviews, they were greatly appreciated :)**

**I had a great day today explaining LOTR to my eight year old cousin ("Why didn't they just WALK to Mount Doom and throw the ring in and it would all be fine?"). She then proceeded to ask about every one of the dwarfs, interestingly taking a particular liking to Bifur :) **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Three # Falling to Flying #**

Kíli woke up panting.

It took him a minute to discern where he was - the soft, baggy nightclothes felt as unfamiliar as the incredibly comfortable bed and its large duvet.

Slowly it all came back to him, and he swallowed. In real life he had fallen down, down, down…

In his nightmare, _he_ had been the one standing on the bridge, and _he_ had watched _Fíli_ fall to his death. In his nightmare he had found Fíli at the bottom of the mine shaft, broken and bloodied. In his nightmare –

A loud banging startled Kíli and he tumbled out of the bed, his muscles instantly ready to run and his mind instantly awake.

"One minute!" A woman's voice called, and Natalia burst into the room, wordlessly grabbing his shoulder and dragging him to the cupboard, all the while signalling for his silence with a finger to her lips.

Kíli was silent as she shut the cupboard and went to the door. The walls of the apartment were thin - he could hear everything.

"Can I help you?" Natalia's voice asked pleasantly.

"Ms Cardoza? I don't know if you remember me, but my name is Silas Sheridan, I'm a police officer, and a friend of your parents."

Kíli froze at the familiar voice, hugging his arms around himself tighter as if trying to make himself as small as possible. Silas, the man who had been in the clearing. The grey man, who had threatened him.

"Oh...my parents are not home right now-"

"I am afraid that I have some bad news for you, Ms Cardoza. Your parents are dead."

Kíli heard the woman gasp as if it was a surprise, and heard the break in her voice. "What? How?"

The man's lies were so smooth that Kíli almost believed them. "They were in a car accident coming back from the camping trip. Your brother, we think that he ran away but we don't know where he is. Did he make it home?"

"Oh my god!"

"Ms Cardoza?"

"No, he didn't make it home! Where is he?" Panic was rising in Natalia's voice, but Kíli knew that she knew _exactly _where her brother was.

"We will find him." Silas promised and Kíli shuddered. "Here's my card, if he shows up call me."

"I will." Natalia sounded like she was about to cry.

"I'll leave you to grieve, senorita. If you need anything, call me."

"Okay..." The door closed and he heard Natalia crying, and about five minutes later the cupboard door opened.

Kíli shrank away involuntarily and Natalia offered him a hand. "Come on, Kíli, you can come out now. He's gone."

He bit his lip and took her hand. She led him to the table and set down a plate of food in front of him. He ate it greedily, and listened as Natalia talked.

"We have to leave, if we can. There are very few people in our world who believe in yours, but those of us that do… we think that there are ways of connecting the worlds, like one way passages. You get here one way but you cannot get back the same way. I do not actually know where the nearest…portal…to your world is, but I know some people who might be able to help. I made some telephone calls when you were asleep, that means I used one of these-" she placed a rectangular object on the table. "- to talk to people far away, and a couple of them offered some help and advice. We just need to figure out some details, do you think you can help?"

Kíli nodded, swallowing the strangely delicious tangy orange-coloured juice. "I'll try."

She smiled. "Great. First off, how old are you?"

"Fifty-five." He replied with his mouth full of bread.

"Okay…do you know, and this may be a little strange, but do you know your equivalent age in human years?"

Kíli nodded. "About ten I think. That's what my mother says."

"Good, that's what I thought." Natalia smiled. "How old is your brother?"

"Fíli? He's sixty." Kíli nodded, before a swooping feeling settled in his stomach. "How did you know…?"

"About your brother? Enrique told me. What are your parents' names? Do you live with them?"

Suspicion carried on tainting Kíli's thoughts but he answered anyway. "My mother is called Dís. I live with her and my Uncle, Thorin Oakenshield."

Natalia's eyes narrowed. "I see…Okay, Kíli. Enrique and I are going to try and get you home."

"Thank you." Kíli muttered gratefully, flashing a timid grin.

"But for us to be able to help you, you have to trust us. And we have to go to a place called Australia, I have a friend there who has answers and if we're lucky a way to get you home. What that means is…" she paused. "Kíli, how likely is it that someone will follow you here?"

He considered that for a moment. "I think…"

They would all think he was dead, who would follow him when he was certainly dead.

Kíli could still remember when he was six years old, when Thorin brought his father's body back from battle, when he explained to the two boys what 'death' meant.

_His fingers lingered on his father's cold hand. Fíli was crying in his mother's arms, but Kíli could not tear his eyes from his father's face. He wished that he didn't understand, but he did. _

_"Un…Unca Thorin?" _

_"Yes?" his Uncle's voice was low. _

_"You said you bring him home an' you did." _

_From the corner of his eye, Kíli picked up Thorin's nod, and he felt his uncle's hands tighten over his shoulders. "I did." _

_"If we go dead-"_

_"Die." Fíli corrected automatically before sobbing anew. _

_"If we go die, you bring _us _home?" he turned to look up at his uncle's glistening eyes and Thorin picked him up. _

Even fifty years later, Kíli remembered his Uncle's beard scratching against his face as he whispered back.

_"You're not going to die, Kíli, but I promise that as long as I am alive I will always, always bring you home."_

"Someone will come." He said quietly, staring at his plate. "But they will expect to find my…"

"Your body." Natalia murmured and Kíli nodded. "I am sorry, Kíli."

"What happens if my uncle gets here and I'm not here?" Kíli realised what she was getting to.

"I have friends who will keep watch over the area." Natalia smiled. "They will explain everything I'm explaining to you now. But maybe if we're lucky we can get you back before anyone has chance to find the way here."

Kíli grinned properly for what felt like the first time in years. "Really? Let's get going then!"

"Whoa, whoa!" she laughed, sitting up straight in her chair. "There are some things that you need to learn first…"

_~ The Hobbit ~_

The mood in Ered Luin was humbling to say the least. Gandalf the Grey was led through the mourning mountain by Gróin, a dwarf he had met the previous year in Bree. Silence would have been preferable to the muted murmurs that lingered around the halls, and Gandalf himself mourned for the two young princes he had only heard about that morning.

It was a heart-breaking story of naïve loyalty - the older brother trying to sneak away to save the younger and instead falling to his inevitable death.

Gandalf had headed to the dwarven settlement in search of Thorin, son of Thráin, after many years of investigation led him to conclude that the dying dwarf he had discovered so long ago in Dol Guldur was in fact Thráin himself.

His conversation with Gróin almost exactly a year ago had rekindled the desire to find the son of the dwarf who had been tortured for so long that he did not remember his own name, and not only did Gróin's description of the old king match the dwarf Gandalf had found, but in context it made sense for him to possess the map and key.

Gandalf had been almost excited to give Thráin's son the closure that knowledge brings, but now Gandalf wished he were only there to display his fireworks.

Gróin had explained that Gandalf was to talk to Thorin's sister, Dís, in his absence, and Gandalf was well aware that following the loss of her sons, news of Thráin's death would bring only further pain to the dwarven princess who had already lost so much.

A small boy scampered over to his guide and Gróin lifted the child onto his hip. The brown eyes that nestled under the rich red hair gazed at Gandalf with the muted curiosity of a grieving child.

"This is Gimli, my grandson." Gróin introduced half-heartedly.

The child looked about six years old, but Gandalf knew that he would be at least thirty or forty. He gave Gimli a small smile, which the child weakly returned.

"They were his cousins." Gróin mentioned gruffly. "They were close."

Gandalf sighed. "I am so, so sorry."

"We are here. The hall." Gróin gestured to the large doors and Gandalf steeled himself as they opened.

At the end of the hall a dwarven woman sat in a grand chair, though the hall was not by any means a throne room.

She was beautiful, by anyone's standards with dark braided hair and beard, and features that were very delicate for a dwarf, features Gandalf would later discover she passed onto her youngest son.

A small silver circlet crossed her forehead, and the wizard recognised the mourning lament spelled out by the runes. A veil hung from the circlet, another symbol of the exiled princess' grief, but despite it all she still sat with her chin up.

"Gandalf the Grey, my Lady." Gróin introduced, placing Gimli down on the floor. The child just slumped onto his grandfather's foot and leaned against the old dwarf's leg.

"Welcome." Dís' voice was stiff but earnest.

"Thank you, my Lady." He bowed his head. When he spoke, sincerity shone from his voice and eyes. "I am so very sorry for your loss."

She took a steadying breath and nodded. "Gróin tells me that you bring news…"

"Yes, my Lady, though now I fear that this is not the best time for it to be heard."

"Say what you must, Gandalf." Dís insisted softly. "Whatever news you bring it is my duty to hear it and act accordingly while my brother is…"

Gandalf almost took a step forward as the dwarven woman's eyes filled with tears, but she tipped her head back and urged him to speak with her hand.

"Just speak openly, please. Deliver what news you must."

Gandalf gave a little nod. "Many years ago, in the year 2850, I discovered a dwarf imprisoned in Dol Guldur. He had been held for years, and he could not even remember his own name or purpose. All he knew was that he wished for a certain map and key to reach his son. I did my best to save him but I had arrived too late, and he passed shortly after my arrival. I tried to discover his identity but with so little to go on, my search was in vain, that is until I met Gróin last year. With his help, I believe that I have identified the dwarf as your father, Thráin."

Shock filled the blue eyes and her mouth fell open.

"I am so sorry to be the bearer of this news at this time."

"Where are they now? The map, the k-key?"

Gandalf passed the woman the objects in question and she gasped softly.

"Erebor…" her fingers spread across the parchment. "I have seen this key before. When we fled the mountain and I was but a small child my father would have me hold it to keep me quiet when the nights grew too long without my mother. He…he is dead?"

"Yes."

Dís took another steadying breath. "He did not remember his name…he was tortured?"

Gandalf winced. "Yes."

All of a sudden Dís composure shattered. Her breaths turned to shudders and she pressed her hand to her mouth. It did nothing to supress the sob that burst from between her lips.

"My Lady…" Gandalf murmured painfully, putting a hesitant hand on her arm. Her fingers clutched at his hand as she started to cry, and with a defensive yell Gróin banished two observers from the hall.

Gimli scrambled up to the princess and put a hand on her other hand. She pulled him roughly into her lap, crying into his hair as Gandalf gently pulled away.

It took only five minutes for the crying to cease.

Gandalf was surprised when her voice came stronger than before. "You are welcome to stay awhile, Gandalf, if it suits you. Though it grieves me, your news is at least a closure I never had before, and for that I thank you."

The doors burst open and a young guard ran into the room. "My Lady! My Lady!"

"What is wrong, Orin?" Dís frowned, and Gandalf was pushed aside by the young dwarf as he showed something to the Lady.

"We found this, by the pit!"

In his hands was a dead bird, one in which Gandalf had never before seen in Middle Earth.

Gandalf's eyes widened. "Where did you say the princes fell?"

"Down an ancient mine shaft, one of the deepest in Middle Earth." Gróin responded.

_Could it be? _

Gandalf's face clouded over. "My Lady, with your permission I would like to follow your brother's company."

"Why?"

Gandalf's eyes were wider than they had been for centuries. "This has just become much bigger than I could have ever imagined."

_~ The Hobbit ~_

A tall Spanish woman walked into the airport, two children trailing behind her. To any observer she was exactly who she said she was, Tali Garcia, travelling with her brother Rico and her English cousin Kyle.

She strode confidently up to the security gate, beckoning for the two boys to follow her. The taller boy, the cousin, wore light blue t-shirt and jeans, matched with scruffy long hair and a shy but undoubtedly cheeky grin, whereas the younger boy wore shorts and a t-shirt paired with a look of solemn obedience.

There was a slight scuffle before they checked in their suitcase and the woman confiscated something that looked suspiciously like a knife from the taller boy, shoving it in the heavy suitcase and speaking sternly to him before moving on. The pouting child followed despondently until they reached security.

He passed under the metal detectors, jumping out of his skin as they beeped.

"It's okay, Kyle." Tali smiled comfortingly as the men searched him with the wand and the fidgety child's hands tightened visibly around his backpack the minute it returned.

The three ate in the café and then boarded a flight to Barcelona, arriving at the other end to board a flight to Singapore. They got on the plane without event, the two boys communicating with clumsy actions a lot of laughter.

It was obvious that Kyle had not flown much before – he sucked the sweets given to him intensely during take-off but still winced as his ears reacted to the pressure changes and he looked anxiously outside every five minutes.

Midway through the flight, Tali made a decision that seemed of little consequence after flicking through the film options on board.

It seemed completely unimportant – a cousin picking a film for her younger charge.

But it was on that flight that Natalia Garcia Cardoza showed Kíli, son of Dís, Peter Jackson's famous adaptation of _The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. _

**Schmeur. I don't know…I want to continue this but its not coming easily. Things will be explained much more as the story goes on, I actually have details for this fic but I don't know. **

**I'm hoping that the real action will kick in next chapter, and updates may speed up in the holidays that have just begun, but my main focus right now is on my other fic, ****_Where I Belong._**

**_Sorry for any mistakes!_**

**Honestly is this worth writing? I'll keep writing it regardless of reviews etc, but its always nice to know if others think this is not a waste of time :)**

**Thanks for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4: Some Unexpected Turbulence

**Hello! Thank you so much for my reviews, the story is now coming together! YAY! **

**NB – In the previous chapters, I mentioned how I had re-written both several times. Well. In re-reading it, I noticed that I deleted something I didn't mean to that had originally been in chapter two - where Kíli identified the man and woman he saw murdered in the clearing as Natalia and Enrique's parents. It made the beginning of chapter three make more sense and I'm very sorry about it. **

**Chapter Four # Some Unexpected Turbulence #**

"Well, we're in a right old mess, Master Fíli." Bofur forced cheer into his voice but the blond haired dwarfling didn't laugh. He didn't even look up. Bofur lowered his tone, the cheer making way for sincerity. "We'll be alright, Fíli."

Fíli looked out of the cage he had been unceremoniously shoved in by the strange men with the frightening weapons at Bofur, who was strapped to the wall of the box-like thing they were inside. He thought they had called it a 'van'.

"Is this death? Is this what happened to Kíli?" He whispered hoarsely.

Bofur's mask fell away entirely, any shreds of happiness slipping away. "I don't think we're dead, Fíli, but I don't know. And it could be what happened to Kíli. Maybe..."

Fíli knew that Bofur had no answers, but he could not help but ask. "Where is he?"

"I have no idea. If I knew where _we_ were that'd help..."

"I'm so-"

Bofur glared at the young dwarf. "Fíli, we've talked about this. What did I say?"

"The next time I apologised you would gag me." Fíli mumbled dutifully. "But you can't reach me, so I really am so, so sorry!"

Bofur chuckled. "This isn't your fault."

"Your arm-"

"Is fine." Bofur's easy smile slid back into place.

The door swung open and Fíli flinched away from the sudden stream of light. A man climbed into the back of the van, bellowing over his shoulder. "The little one?"

"Yeah, hurry up!" Another voice replied.

"Bofur?" Fíli's voice wavered as the man towered over the cage.

"Hey, don't you dare touch him!" The miner instantly roared, straining against his bonds with ferocity that rivalled Dwalin. "Leave him alone! You want to do anything you do it to me, leave the boy alone!"

The man ignored him, opening the cage and dragging Fíli out by the scruff of his neck like a misbehaving puppy.

"Let me go!" Fíli cried, panicked. "Bofur!"

"Hold on, Fíli, it will all be alright." The older dwarf pleaded in defeat as the boy was dragged away and the doors slammed shut.

Once outside, Fíli noted that now there were only three more men lingering around the clearing they had fallen into compared to the ten that there had been when they had been caught. Some of the strange vehicles were also gone.

Before he could observe anything else, a knife was pressed to Fíli's throat and he froze.

The man holding the knife grinned at the child's reaction and pushed it in further. "So… 'Fíli', why are you here?"

"We fell. It was an accident." Fíli whispered truthfully, concerned by the sarcastic tone the man used when saying his name.

The man laughed coldly. "An accident? Oh dear…"

"I'm not lying," Fíli protested as calmly as he could, and the man's grin deepened.

"I don't believe in accidents."

Fíli was taken aback. How could you _not _believe in accidents? "Who are you?"

"My name is Kane, and _I _ask the questions." The man growled, pressing the blade deeper into his throat. Fíli stopped breathing. "What were you looking for?"

Protective instinct shut Fíli's mouth. "Wh-who said we are looking for anything?"

In a split second Kane's fist smashed into his skull, sending Fíli flying out of the other man's hold and flailing to the floor with a pained cry of surprise. Before the stars had faded out of his vision, Kane's fingers grasped his hair and dragged him up off of the floor.

"Let's get one thing straight, you little faggot. If you even think about lying to me, trying to trick me, or hesitating to answer my questions, I will smash you into the ground. Now…_who _were you looking for?"

"My brother." He winced as the man shook him roughly. It seemed like the man knew _exactly _who he was looking for.

"Younger than you?"

"Yes."

Kane let go of his hair and the other man grabbed his arms, dragging him up off of the floor again. "Dark haired, has a bow and some arrows?"

Fíli's heart fell. If these people had found Kíli who knew what could have happened to his baby brother. And they had obviously found someone… _Please don't be Kíli, please don't be Kíli… "_Y-yes..."

"Owned this?" Kane dangled a little bead in front of Fíli's face and he felt like his stomach had abandoned him.

"That's mine…" he whispered unconsciously. "Oh, Kíli…"

"So the brat _was_ your brother…"

_Was? _Fíli's heart pounded painfully in his chest and his usual control was lost. "What did you do to him? _What did you do to him?" _

Kane looked shocked as Fíli flew into a frenzy, thrashing about and gritting his teeth as he tried to lunge at the much larger and much more dangerous man he was shouting at. Vaguely they could hear Bofur calling out from the van, but neither side paid him any attention.

"So you loved your little brother then?" he drawled.

Once again the past tense sent shivers down Fíli's spine. "Where _is _he, what did you do to him?"

An evil grin spread over Kane's face. "Well we had only just started to have our fun when he, uh, how to put it…left the party. If he's not dead already he will soon be. The cowardly little-"

Fíli roared, struggling anew against the man who held him, but apparently Kane had had enough. He paused long enough to slap Fíli across the face, before dragging his head back by his hair, pressing the knife against his exposed neck.

Fíli swallowed his screams and looked up at the man.

"Do you want to die today, dwarf?"

"No…" Fíli whispered.

"The only reason you are still alive is that we do not know the status of your brother. We only need one of you alive, and we're searching for your brat of a brother now."

"You have me, leave Kíli alone!" Fíli couldn't help but beg, and the man laughed.

"We only need one of you _alive. _We need the other dead, little dwarf."

Fíli swallowed.

"And we probably don't need the adult alive, either. Peterson, oh, whichever one of you the short one is, you kill it." Kane gestured casually over his shoulder.

"No!" Fíli begged as one of the men pulled out the thing called a 'gun' and headed towards the van - and Bofur.

"Kill him quickly and _cleanly, _Peterson, the boss will want to do a full autopsy and he'll want it as clean as possible-"

_BANG! _

Instantaneously Kane fell to the floor, clutching his stomach and moaning an agony.

_BANG!_

Fíli screamed as the man still holding his arms flew backwards with a wail. He dropped to the floor and scrambled back towards the van, hearing Bofur's frantic calls rising in volume, calling out his name desperately.

The other two men instantly relaxed as the unknown attacker, a tall man with a huge gun, emerged from the trees.

"We thought you'd never show up!" one laughed. He was shorter than the other, and Fíli guessed that he was Peterson.

"We should finish 'em off." The other added, peering over the two bleeding men. Kane was still groaning on the floor, and the man who had held Fíli looked well on the way to unconsciousness.

Fíli's mouth dropped open in hopeless despair as the newcomer stalked towards him.

He crouched down in front of the trembling dwarf who was cornered like a rabbit with nowhere left to run.

When he spoke his voice was surprisingly gentle. "What's your name?"

When Fíli did not respond the man took his wrist, gently inspecting the strange markings that ran all the way around.

"Are you Fíli?" He pressed, and Fíli looked up fearfully. "Are you?"

Fíli nodded slowly.

"And you're looking for Kíli?"

He nodded again, and the man passed him a small picture. "Is this Kíli?"

Fíli gasped at the incredible accuracy of the picture of his brother and his nod became vigorous.

The man glanced at the men on the floor. "Kíli is safe. Not with those men or anyone like them, but with some people I know. We are here to help you, okay?"

"Why? Who are you, who're they?" Fíli demanded fearfully.

"My name is Joe, and they are some very bad people. We are helping you because it's our job, and you don't deserve to be experimented on. And because it is better if the worlds don't mix, or at least mix. Are you alone?"

Experimented on? Worlds? What?

"No...My friend is trapped in there..." He glanced at the van, wondering if he was helping Bofur or just getting the friendly dwarf in more danger.

"Tashi, I need you to open the van." Joe called immediately.

A beautiful but serious woman emerged from the woods with a graceful nod and Fíli had to physically stop himself from staring. Her skin was so dark it was almost black - Fíli had never seen anything like it. She pulled out a long metal object and levered the door open, climbing in.

Fíli could hear her speaking inside the van with a heavy accent he had never heard before. "I will release you, if you swear to not attack me."

"Agreed." Bofur's careful voice replied.

Moments later Bofur jumped out of the van, grabbing onto Fíli's shoulders protectively and glaring at the man in front of him.

"Are you alright?" He murmured in Fíli's ear, and Fíli nodded impatiently.

"They know where Kíli is!" The young dwarf cried, and Bofur fixed a hard stare on the man.

"Is this true? Who are you?"

"Yes, it is true. And my name is Joe, Joe Armstrong. Who are you?"

"Bofur." He replied, his eyes narrowing suspiciously as Joe's eyes widened in recognition of the name. "Where is Kíli?"

Joe sighed. "Unfortunately he is on his way out of the country."

"What?" Fíli cried, twisting to look at Bofur before staring back at Joe. "Why?"

"It is rather complicated…" Joe looked uncomfortable. "Now you need to come with us-"

"Why?" Bofur challenged. "What are you going to do to us?"

"Nothing." Joe said simply. "We want you to survive get back home, preferably with Kíli and that would require you coming with us. Unless you want to wait for more of _them_ to arrive."

He nudged the moaning Kane with his toe.

Bofur glanced at the two men that had been there before and they both smiled.

"Jake and Blake Peterson." The taller one smiled.

"At your service." The other one quipped with a wink, only to be elbowed by the elder.

"Cut it out, Blake. They say that seriously, don't take the piss." He shook his head. "Sorry about him. We're with Joe."

Blake sighed with what sounded like regret as Joe bent down over Kane and tied his hands with some little strips of plastic before putting pressure on his stomach. "I'm going to have to save that asshole, aren't I?"

"Yes, we need answers and we're not murderers. So help him before we lose them both!" Jake rolled his eyes. "I swear to god, Blake, you're hopeless.

"Well, I try my best."

Fíli gave a little laugh and Blake's grin widened. He winked at the dwarf and Jake shook his head again, pushing his brother towards the other fading man.

"If you come with us we will explain where you are. We will also see about getting you reunited with your brother." Tashi, the woman smiled, beckoning Fíli and Bofur over toward the wood.

Fíli looked up at Bofur, who reluctantly nodded. They did not really have another choice.

He kept his hands firmly on Fíli's shoulders as they followed the strangers, swearing on everything close to his heart that he would do anything he could to get the little princes home.

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Kíli watched the now blank screen in shock and Natalia put a hand on his arm. "Are you okay?"

"That was me?" He whispered, his voice inaudible to anyone else on the sleeping plane.

"Yes...well, someone acting as you."

"Who?"

"His name is Aidan Turner." A small smile twitched across the woman's face.

"How old was I supposed to be?"

"Seventy-seven."

Kíli swallowed. "I...I...I..."

"It's a lot to take in, I know."

"What happens? Do we do it, you said there was a book, have you read it?"

Unsure of what to tell the child, Natalia gave a sad smile. "You...in the story... you _do_ reclaim Erebor. But things are different now, now that you're here and things have changed. I don't know anymore... You might do, though."

Kíli's heart fell. This was all his fault. If he wasn't such an idiot, if he hadn't fallen, then they would have succeeded in his uncle's lifetime goal.

As per usual, it wasn't long before curiosity overrode his guilt and he frowned. "He looks like me. Or I might look like him when I'm older, and the others look like my friends… Why?"

Natalia frowned. "I really don't know. The friend we're going to see, Eliza, she might."

Kíli nodded discontentedly and Natalia closed her eyes.

If she did get Kíli home and he did set off for the quest he would undoubtedly warn Thorin away from the Misty Mountains, which would mean that the ring would not be discovered...why oh why did she show Kíli the film? No one should know their own future… Cursing her own stupidity, Natalia remedied her mistake the only way she could.

"Okay, Kíli, say you got back tomorrow and in twenty two years your Uncle set out for Erebor, would you warn your uncle about anything?"

"Of course." Kíli blinked, and she grabbed his arm.

"Okay, listen to me now, this is _very _important. You cannot let anybody know that you know what happens because some things _have_ to happen. If you didn't go into goblin town, Bilbo would not have found the ring."

"So?" Kíli frowned.

"Have you ever heard of the rings of power?"

To her surprise the young boy nodded. "Balin told me about them. He said that they'd almost been forgotten by most people but that it was very important that they weren't forgotten because Sauron nearly destroyed the world."

"Well, Bilbo finding the ring is _very, very _important, understand, that _has _to happen or Sauron could find it and regain power and everything will go very wrong."

"How'd you know?" Kíli asked suspiciously, and she sighed.

"There are more films set in the future, but I can't show them to you."

"Why not?" Kíli pouted and she laughed.

"Because you shouldn't know that much about the future, if that even _is _the future now... Maybe when we talk to Eliza you can, but she's more of an expert than me, she'll know what to do. It's late, Kíli, you should sleep."

"What if when I get back tell someone something by mistake?"

She didn't know what to say. "Get some sleep, Kíli."

"I can't." Kíli whined. "I feel sick."

_Oh dear, Lord above, save me from travel sick dwarf children!_ she prayed, before clicking a few buttons on Kíli's remote in a desperate attempt to keep the travel sickness at bay.

"Here, there's a music selection. Find something you like and just listen to it with your eyes closed for a while."

As he had with every other order she gave, Kíli obeyed, but he didn't seem to be very happy about it. He skipped the music constantly, but then he eventually stopped searching.

She guessed that he had fallen asleep, but then she noticed the tears forcing their way out of his barely closed eyelids and the muffled sniffles escaping his trembling lips. Leaning closer for a moment, Natalia closed her eyes as she heard the song he had put on repeat.

_"Far over the misty mountains cold..." _

He felt her staring and opened his eyes slowly.

"It sounds like Uncle Thorin." He whispered.

"Oh, Kíli..."

The little boy closed his eyes and sighed softly. Even as she drifted off to sleep, Natalia could see the child's lips moving, mumbling words that had been his lullaby since he was a new born baby.

_"The trees like torches blazed with light."_

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Thorin had never felt so broken in his life.

Four days ago, life had been perfect. Well, not it had been far from perfect, but it was as close as he could get without returning to Erebor or discovering a mine full of mithril.

Three days ago he had witnessed Kíli, the beloved baby of his already broken family, fall to a terrifying and painful death.

Two days ago he had witnessed Fíli, his little sunshine Fíli, following his brother to the same inevitable doom.

There was only one thing that Thorin could do for them now, and he would not rest until he had done it. He would not rest until he took his nephews home to their mother and laid them to rest.

They were still another day's walk or so away from the bottom - the shaft being even deeper than expected, and with each step Thorin dreaded the end a little more.

_"Ow, Fíli _stop it!" _Kíli snarled. _

_"Stop what?" Fíli asked, and Kíli whirled around to growl in his face. _

_"Stop. Kicking. Me!" _

_"I'm not!" protested Fíli. "I'm just reminding you to keep moving." _

_"You-"_

_"Boys." Thorin's low, warning tone was enough to silence both boys, though only for a minute. _

_"Stop it." Kíli hissed under his breath, irritation falling from him like waves. _

_Thorin knew exactly what was going on. Exactly two months ago, Kíli had dedicated an entire day to driving Fíli mad right under his busy mother's nose, resulting in Fíli's punching of his brother and consequent punishment. Fíli had gotten over it by the next day but had sworn revenge, and had cleverly waited for a rare day when Kíli was tired enough to be easily irritable. _

_Unfortunately for everyone involved, it happened to be on the day of the expedition. _

_"Urgh, Fíli stop!" Kíli finally shouted, pushing Fíli away from him, and Thorin instantly grabbed the younger child's arm and dragged him aside._

_The other dwarves on the expedition, namely Bifur and his cousins, Dori and his brothers, Óin and Glóin, and Balin who was on watch at the back of the group, waited awkwardly as Thorin and Kíli disappeared into a side tunnel. _

_"Kíli, we are on an expedition. You cannot make a scene like that and you definitely can_not_ push your brother!" Thorin scolded angrily. "Not only is it humiliating for us all, but it is dangerous outside of the town – the tunnels are not safe and your brother could fall. Do you want Fíli to fall?" _

_Kíli's face turned from guilty to terrified. "N-no, I didn't mean to he was just pushing me further and further and I-"_

_"I am not interested in your excuses, Kíli. How can I trust you to be mature enough for this expedition if you react like a child?" _

_His youngest sister-son lowered his eyes to the floor. "I am sorry, Uncle Thorin." _

_"For what?" _

_"For pushing Fíli and for humiliating you." _

_Thorin nodded curtly and gently pushed Kíli out of the side tunnel. The dark haired boy re-joined his brother, who was looking appropriately guilty. _

_"The next time you irritate your brother, I am sending you straight home." Thorin warned Fíli, glaring at Kíli to make sure that the younger boy knew that the same went for him. _

_As the adult dwarves awkwardly restarted their conversations, Fíli and Kíli trailed along just in front of a concerned looking Bofur. _

_As Thorin held council with Dwalin and Glóin about the path that would hold the greatest chance of success, he couldn't help but overhear Fíli's sudden plea. _

_"I'm sorry, Kíli. I'm really sorry, I really am." _

_"It's okay. And I'm more sorry. You could've fallen, I was being stupid." _

_"I'm not going to fall." Fíli laughed. "But I think it's sorrier." _

_"What?" _

_"Not more sorry. Sorrier." _

_Kíli gave Fíli a light nudge, careful not to let it be mistaken for a push. "Stop it, Fee." _

_Thorin continued to talk to Dwalin and Glóin, regretting his harsh words to Kíli a little. But only a little. _

_Kíli was young and exuberant, but Thorin was painfully aware that he may not always have the liberty to be so. Thorin knew from experience what a harsh life in the wilderness could do to any child, even one as playful as Kíli. _

_Thorin had been playful once. _

_Kíli needed to grow up a little, so that he would have the opportunity to remain a child for the duration of his childhood._

_"Goblins!" Balin yelled suddenly, as several of the foul creatures came toward them. _

_As the dwarves instantly armed themselves, Fíli grabbed Kíli's arm and looked at his uncle. _

_"Thorin?" _

_"Run!" he hissed at them, making sure their packs were on their backs. "Run now, go, go!" _

_He looked at their retreating backs until they disappeared around the tunnel before turning to face the advancing enemy. By Mahal, there were hoards of them! _

_He could see Dori and Nori both pushing Ori backwards away from the fray, but the young dwarf was not going anywhere. _

_Thorin hoped beyond hope that the two got away and that neither were scarred from the ensuing battle. They were two young to be scarred. _

_Midway through slicing through a goblin's neck, Thorin whirled around to the sound of a frightened scream. _

_"Thorin!" _

_"Kíli!" he realised, and Dwalin shoved him towards the tunnel the boys took. _

_"Go!" _

_Thorin ran, praying he was not too late. Kíli and Fíli were children, they were all but defenceless. _

_They were only children. _

And now they would remain children for eternity, with the last words Thorin had ever spoken directly to Kíli being a reprimand.

"Thorin." Dwalin's unusually hoarse voice dragged Thorin back to reality.

"What?"

"We've been followed."

"What?" Thorin turned to see an incredibly fierce Bifur keeping a tall old man at spear's distance. He was shocked and appalled that he hadn't noticed the stranger, even though the man he didn't appear to be a threat.

"Thorin Oakenshield, I presume?" the man eyed the spear warily.

"You presume correctly." Thorin growled. "Who are you? What are you doing here?"

"I am the wizard Gandalf the Grey, I've come here to warn you about this path."

"What do you mean?" Thorin's defences rose higher than the gates of Erebor.

"You will not find the bodies of your kin when you reach the bottom." The wizard said urgently. Though Thorin had never met him before, he guessed that Gandalf was being a lot briefer than he would like to be.

Bifur snarled something unrecognisable at the wizard and Thorin took a step forward. "What do you mean?"

"This was found at the mouth of this tunnel." The wizard held up a dead bird and Thorin's scowl deepened. "It is a sign, telling you that at the bottom of this staircase lies a passageway to a different world."

"A what?" Thorin asked, dumb shock taking over his brain.

"They call it Earth, I believed it to be a myth until a few hours ago. If you reach the end of this tunnel you may never find your way home."

The thought of never getting home meant nothing to Thorin. "You mean my ne...our people may still be alive?"

"Yes there is a chance that your nephews are alive, although the world of Earth is not without its perils."

Thorin's heart started to beat as if it had been dormant for days and hope flooded every inch of his soul. "How may we get them back?"

"Well, for one thing you will need to fit in, I think I may be able to assist you. But know this, the worlds are separate for a reason, they should not mix."

Anger began to take a hold of Thorin's heart. "I will not abandon my people-"

"That was not what I suggested." Gandalf snapped back. "I merely meant that we should proceed with caution."

"You intend to join us." Thorin noted.

"Do you know anything about earth?" Gandalf questioned.

Thorin took a deep breath, and Fíli and Kíli's smiling faces entered his mind only to be replaced by images of them screaming and crying, lost and scared.

"Tell me what _we_ must do."

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Kíli screamed as a crazy jolting shook the entire plane and he was violently ripped from sleep. He felt Natalia's hand on his arm as the strange woman's disembodied voice announced to the whole plane:

_"We have hit some unexpected turbulence, passengers please return to your seats…" _

"What's happening?" he cried, and the waking passengers around him started to stare.

"Shh, Kíli-" Natalia urged him, and he stared at her with wide eyes.

The plane lurched again and he cried out, shrinking into his seat. "What's going on?"

"Kíli, it's turbulence, it's going to be okay, its normal!"

The words fell quickly from her mouth but Kíli was terrified. "N-n-norm-mal?"

"Yes, it's just the weather, it'll be over soon."

"Soon?" Kíli whimpered, his fingers grasping onto the arms of the chair tightly.

One of the flight attendants knelt in front of him with a kind smile. "Are you alright sir?"

"Are we going to fall?" Kíli whispered, trying to shrink as far into his seat as possible.

"No sir, we are not falling." She smiled. "Is this your first flight?"

He shook his head. "S-S-second."

She gave him another soft smile. "Alright, just relax. The weather is making the plane jolt a little bit it will be over soon. This is called turbulence, and it is normal and safe." Kíli nodded slowly, and the woman smiled. "Just stay in your seat, sir and keep your belt fastened."

Enrique reached over his sister from the window seat and pushed something into Kíli's hands with a smile. "Okay, Kíli. Is okay."

Kíli gave his new friend a weak grin, but his hands didn't move from the arm rests.

"It's not stopping!" he grabbed Natalia's arm what felt like an age later after a particularly violent jolt.

"Kíli, it's only been ten minutes, we're about to land – look the screen says five minutes to your destination, everything's fine, everything's fine-"

Suddenly the ceiling fell apart and the oxygen masks fell down from the ceiling. Kíli wasn't the only one to scream as the disembodied voice returned.

_"Ladies and gentleman, we are experiencing a drop in cabin pressure, please take the oxygen mask from above your head and pull it down firmly as demonstrated by the cabin crew. Parents, please attend to yourself before helping children, we will be descending as soon as possible…" _

"Are we falling now?" Kíli cried again, as Natalia pulled the oxygen mask over her face.

"Tali?" Enrique's voice wavered and she pulled the mask over his face, before turning to Kíli.

"No!" he protested weakly, already feeling a little dizzy. but she secured the mark over his face anyway and grabbed a hold of his hand. Taking Enrique's in the other, Natalia took a deep breath, and the two boys imitated her movements.

To Kíli's relief the plane landed safely, the malfunctions being only minor, but they couldn't get the young dwarf off the plane fast enough.

"I don't want to do that again." He gasped, and Natalia gave him a sympathetic smile.

"Come on, let's go through immigration."

Enrique and Kíli were both shaken from the mishaps of the flight and they both trailed behind Natalia with a significantly smaller level of enthusiasm as they had in Barcelona.

"Thank god for the network…" Natalia muttered, and Kíli looked at Enrique who just shrugged.

With the help of a pre-booked taxi driver, Natalia bundled the boys into the taxi and they set off for the hotel they were booked into for the evening and most of the next day.

Enrique was asleep before they had left the airport and Kíli wasn't very far behind. Despite the amazing city that was so different from Seville, his eyes drooped and he slumped against the window.

The next thing he was really aware of was waking up in a soft bed in a clean room. He struggled to remember what the place was called.

_Ho…Ho…Hotel! _He thought triumphantly. A sudden wave of hunger knawed at his stomach and he sat up, looking around for Natalia. Enrique was in the bed opposite him, but the room was otherwise empty. There was a door in the corner connecting to the next room, Natalia's, and Kíli clambered out of the bed and knocked on it.

She opened it smiling, and put a hand on his shoulder. "Do you remember what Skype was?"

"I think so." Kíli wrinkled up his nose, considering.

"And do you remember I told you that my friends were looking around the woods?"

"Yes…" he wondered what she was getting at.

"Come and see what they found."

She led Kíli round to the screen _(television, _he reminded himself) and his mouth fell open.

He was overcome by a sudden warmth that started in his heart and flooded his entire body and he grinned widely.

_"Fee!" _

**Thanks for reading. I felt Thorin and maybe Fíli and Kíli were a little OOC here, what did you think?**

**On a side note, this was written on a flight to Singapore during turbulence watching ****_The Hobbit _****:) Next chapter will reveal the reasons for the stop at Singapore en route to Australia. The places used in this story have been picked for actual reasons, all will be revealed in time. Side note of a side note, I love Singapore :)**

**Anyways thanks for reading, please review :)**

**And I am sorry for any OOCness. **


	5. Chapter 5: Conversations of Consequence

**Oh my actual gosh, thank you SO SO SO MUCH for my amazing response last chapter! I actually LOVE you guys and I am SO SORRY that this took a while! I was trying to make it perfect for you because you guys are awesome and I got such a great response. Thank you all so much, I really hope this lives up to your standards! **

**Anyway, let's get on with the chapter. In one section some people speak 'Spanish' which is all in italics (should be pretty self-explanatory when you get there :P) **

**Oh, and also, there's some bad language in the chapter, you have been warned. It is necessary for that character, though. **

**I really hope you don't feel bogged down by OCs, they won't take over this story but its very OC heavy at the moment because it has to be. **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Five # Conversations of Consequence #**

"Kíli!"

Kíli couldn't believe his eyes as he stared at the two familiar staring back at him on the large screen. "Fíli, Bofur…is that really you?"

The blonde head on the nodded, and Bofur laughed a little, though his eyes were more guarded than usual. "Aye, it is lad. How are you?"

"Better now!" he grinned widely, trying to show through his face the immense array of emotions he felt, from incredible relief to unspeakable joy to violent homesickness.

"Why now?" Bofur asked, the guard in his eyes transforming into anxiety.

"The airplane was horrible!" Kíli shuddered, unable to stop his eyes flitting from face to face. "There was something called tur…um…"

"Turbulence." Natalia murmured from the corner and he nodded.

"Turbulence. It made the plane shake and then the ceiling fell in and we had to put masks on to breath and I felt really sick. And the food stank." Kíli added as an afterthought.

"But you're okay now?" Bofur checked, and Kíli nodded.

"Mm hm. Natalia's really nice." Kíli's eyes narrowed slightly, before they flew open in shock. "Fíli, what's the matter?"

His brother, his older, stronger brother, was shaking like a leaf, tears trailing miserably down his face. Now that Kíli's relief ebbed away and let his senses return he could see that Fíli's eyes were red and puffy, and his face contorted in what looked like pain.

"I..." he choked.

Fear seized Kíli's heart and he started to panic. "Fíli, what's wrong with you? Are you hurt, what happened? Fee?"

"No, I'm fine." Fíli assured him immediately, his eyes boring into his baby brother's. He took a deep breath. "I…When you… we all thought…I thought you were dead, Kíli. I thought that I'd lost you forever and you were gone and it hurt, Kíli. It really, really hurt…"

A spasm of pain shot across Kíli's heart and he swallowed. "I'm sorry, Fee-"

"Don't! None of this is your fault!" The blond insisted fiercely, his eyes flaring up passionately as he banished the tears from his face with a violent stroke. "None of it! Understand?"

"I understand." Kíli mumbled dutifully, before grinning his little sheepish grin. "But I'm not dead."

Fíli gave a little laugh of relief and he grinned widely. "No. You're…you're not."

"Have you come to bring me home?" Kíli asked hopefully, though his hopes immediately faded when the other two dwarves glanced at each other.

"We don't know how to get home." Fíli admitted regretfully. "I think you know more than we do. We um…well…"

He trailed off with a guilty glance at Bofur, who grinned a little.

"Fíli was banned from joining the company Thorin took down the stairs to find…well, what we thought would be your _body_, and so I took him home, only for the little traitor to sneak out in the middle of the night to chase after you. As it happened, we both fell." Bofur explained with a trace of amusement, and Kíli felt his breathing quicken.

"But you are going to come here, aren't you?"

"Of course, Kíli." Bofur's immediate reply soothed Kíli a little. "As soon as we can."

"We can't wait for you here." Natalia spoke up regretfully and Kíli gasped.

"What? Why?"

"We have a flight, tomorrow morning, and after passports, booking tickets and the flight itself they won't get here for at least three days, we can't wait that long."

"Why?" Kíli pressed, breaking out the puppy dog eyes.

"If we don't fly we will draw attention to ourselves, not to mention we don't have money to book another flight." Natalia smiled sympathetically at Kíli who was now staring as if he would never see him again. "We can meet them in Australia, though."

"If that's the best we've got we're going to have to go with it, Kíli." Bofur sighed with a hint of irritation. "But we'll see you very soon, laddie, I promise ye."

Kíli nodded, biting down on his trembling lip.

"Kíli are you alright?" Fíli instantly asked, looking as if he wanted to burst through the screen.

Kíli nodded again, bringing his head up to meet his brother. "I'm just thinking."

"Dangerous…" Bofur remarked, and Kíli smiled. The toymaker had a gentle way of lightening even the darkest mood – something he admired and hoped to emulate when he grew up.

Suddenly Fíli spoke with a ferocity that shocked Kíli so much he did not immediately recognise that his brother was speaking in Khuzdul _"Kíli, I _will _find you, trust me. I will not let you down, Kee, I promise." _

_"I know. I trust you, brother." _Kíli responded in the same tongue, his smile shaking. They were breaking the rules even uttering it in front of strangers, but neither brother cared. _"I've missed you." _

Fíli laughed tearfully. _"I've missed you more." _

Bofur smiled at the exchange but cleared his throat regardless, warning the two away from the rule breaking.

A man came into view behind the two and Natalia sighed in relief. "Blake."

"Tali." The young man grinned with a nod of his head.

"Are you coming, too?" she asked eagerly.

"Yep." Blake grinned, before pouting. "With Jake, of course. He never lets me do anything fun on my own."

Natalia laughed.

"Kíli, are you _sure_ you're not hurt?" Fíli asked in an unusually small voice.

"Yes." Kíli replied, his voice firm. "Are you?"

"No, we're not hurt." Bofur's reply was a little quick.

"Are you sure?" Kíli pressed, studying Fíli's face attentively.

"I'm not hurt, Kee."

In an instant the screen went back and Kíli yelped.

"Fíli? Bofur? _Fee_?"

His voice was rising to a scream by the time Fíli's disembodied voice responded. "Kíli, what happened, are you alright? What's going on? Are you hurt?"

"I'm fine, where _are_ you?"

"Blake, what happened?" Natalia asked, her voice low and her hand on Kíli's shoulder.

"Oh, shit…"

"Blake!" the woman called. "Stop swearing and answer me!"

"Sorry, Tali. It looks like a power cut, the lights are all out…"

"Then why can I still hear you?"

Kíli looked up at the woman as a loud pause took over the room.

Blake broke the silence. "Oh fuck…Tali, we need to go."

"Why?" Fíli and Kíli instantly asked in unison.

"Could be nothing, could be everything." Blake's voice replied. "At best, the screen is faulty; at worst those mother-fuckers have found us."

"Blake!" Natalia snapped. "Language! And get the _hell_ out of there, now!"

"Okay, okay, we're going. Hypocrite. I'll email you ASAP."

Kíli couldn't keep the tremor from his voice. "Fíli?"

"I'm here. I'll see you soon, Kíli." Fíli's strong voice wavered a little, but it was full of promise.

"We'll be there, lad." Bofur's voice was as reassuring as ever.

"Goodbye." Kíli called sadly, and then there was silence.

Natalia did not want to break the silence. She didn't know what to say, and she was sure that Kíli would speak when he wanted to, and she was pretty sure that he would know what to say.

When he did speak, she found herself cursing Blake's name to high heaven.

"What's a mother-fucker?"

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Bundled quickly into the back of the car, Fíli stared out of the window with wide eyes.

"Get _down, _Fíli!" Blake warned as he got into the front seat of the car. "If the science-pricks are behind this and they see you there could be trouble.

Bofur sat in the back next to Fíli, and they had barely put their seatbelts on by the time Blake's car screamed out of the car park, and Fíli slid down the seat completely by accident.

"Ah!" he cried as the seatbelt tore against his neck.

Bofur's eyes widened and he pulled Fíli back up the seat. "Can't you drive a little smoother?"

"Sorry." Blake winced, glancing over his shoulder. Moments later, a sly grin slipped across his face. "I can't believe this is actually happening…"

"What?" Fíli frowned, and the man laughed.

"I've spent my _whole _life listening to how stupid I am to believe my parents' stories about Middle Earth being real and how Jake and I were destined to end up living off the streets and being murdered over a drug deal… I've been ridiculed and beaten up my whole life and now, I'm right and they're wrong. I cannot tell you how good that feels." He paused for a second, glancing in the mirror back at a slightly amused Fíli. "Though that's not saying that I don't feel really sorry for you, because I do."

"Thank you." Fíli smiled. "But I am glad that you're happy."

Blake's grin returned. "Thanks, kid."

He pulled up outside a large building and slammed his hand down on the middle of the steering wheel. Fíli jumped as a sudden honk emitted from the car.

"What was that?" Bofur frowned, and Blake looked back at them sheepishly.

"Sorry, I forgot you wouldn't know…I just honked the horn, Jake will be down in a minute."

Sure enough, a door opened and Jake stepped into the street. He slid into the car and clipped his brother around the ears.

"What the hell are you doing, drawing attention to yourself like that?"

The younger brother scowled. "We were compromised. Where's the safe-house?"

"Crap…take a left at the end of the road." Jake said instantly, plugging in his seatbelt and pulling out his phone. "How long has that car been behind you?"

"What?"

"The whole time?"

"What car?"

"The Volvo, Blake, god… I told Paul this was a bad idea, trusting you on your own-"

"Gee, thanks." Sarcasm dripped from Blake's suddenly icy voice, and Fíli glanced at Bofur. "And I have no idea how long it's been behind us."

"Take a right now, no, a right Bla-"

"I heard you the first time!" Blake snapped, glaring at Jake as he turned the corner.

"They're still behind us, I bet they've followed you from the safe-house and you didn't even notice, you're not ready for this, Blake!"

"Fuck you, Jake."

Jake's eyes bulged. "Excuse me?"

"You heard me."

"God, you're an actual idiot, you know that? Take a left."

Fíli stifled a yawn and leant against the car door, staring into space and allowing the men's arguments to pass over his head as sleep claimed him almost instantly.

Bofur watched the bickering men in the front of the car with a soft sigh, covering Fíli with the coat the men had given him and pulling the hood up over his own head. His trusty hat was folded carefully in the bag that the men had given him, as they claimed that it was a little distinctive. He could not imagine why, nor could he imagine why people in this world seemed to have heard of a simple miner from the Blue Mountains.

He ran his fingers over the black markings that circled his wrist, wondering how in Durin's name they had gotten there. While Fíli's wrist bore the word "Durin" in strong Khuzdul runes nestled in the intricate pattern, the word "Firebeard" marked his skin, setting him apart from the young dwarf he was protecting. Suspicion clouded his mind once again – how could the men of this world, good or bad, know his ancestry? And how had the marks gotten there? It had been no inking, of that Bofur was certain. He surely would have felt that.

"We're here." Blake spat, and Bofur could tell that the argument had not been resolved when he lost interest.

"Wake up, laddie." Bofur began to lean towards the sleeping Fíli, but Jake twisted around in the sheet.

"We can carry him straight up to bed if you like, he's just a kid and it's been a long day."

Bofur nodded, but shot a warning glance at the man. "I can do it."

"Your arm-"

"I can do it." Bofur's voice may have lacked the violent aggression of Thorin's or Dwalin's, but the steely threat lay underneath, and Jake nodded, getting out of the car and holding Bofur's door open for him.

It was not that difficult for Bofur to manoeuvre Fíli out of the car, and despite his arm Bofur knew that he could cope with the weight. He may have grown, but he was still a dwarf and he definitely still had the strength of a dwarf. The sixty year old's eyelids fluttered open with a soft moan.

"Bofur?"

"It's alright laddie, we're just getting inside. You can go back to sleep."

"Can walk…." Fíli mumbled a little reluctantly. "Not a ba-by."

Laughing softly at the yawn mangled words, Bofur replied. "Nah, I got ya, lad."

"A…ight…" Fíli yawned, falling asleep again.

Bofur followed Jake and Blake into the tall building and up to a pair of solid metal doors.

"What's through here?" Bofur frowned.

"This is an elevator." Jake explained in a low voice. "It just takes us upstairs."

Bofur nodded, following the brothers into the elevator. His stomach felt a little funny as they moved up, but moments later the doors opened and the men led him to an apartment.

"There's a double bedroom you can take through there." Blake pointed wearily, his previous cheer diminished as he slumped into a chair and put the television on.

"Um, thank you." Bofur said a little awkwardly, and Jake sighed, holding the door open for him. He repeated his thanks more sincerely. "Thank you."

"No problem. I'm sorry about Blake; he's just a little rash."

Bofur nodded, not willing to get in between two fighting brothers, laying the blond child down on the nearest bed before re-joining the men for a moment. "You say this is a safe-house?"

"Yes. Well, not really, but it's the closest we've got. We're not exactly a secret spy agency…"

"What are you?" Bofur asked instantly.

Jake sighed. "Blake, will you grab a couple of beers?"

"Only because I need one myself." Came the grumpy reply.

Jake sat down on the sofa and patted the seat next to him, looking up at Bofur.

"Come and sit down with a beer, and I'll tell you as much as I know."

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Toby Parkinson watched from his motorbike as the treacherous Blake Peterson bundled a blond boy into the back of a car.

His companion's arms tightened around his waist as she spoke into his ear in fluent Spanish. _"Who are we chasing?" _

_"Some dwarves." _He replied in the same tongue, though his accent mangled some of his words. _"Their names are Bofur and Fíli." _

_"Like the ones from _The Hobbit_?" _

_"_The _ones from _The Hobbit_, if that idiot Kane is right." _

_"How is he?" _the woman asked, her arms tightening again as concern crept into her voice.

_"In a better position than Jorge. The wound in his leg became infected and he developed tetanus, apparently, so now the unlucky bastard is in a coma." _

_"And that man did it?" _she nodded towards Peterson who was sliding into the front seat.

_"No, no, Kane managed to tell us that it was Joseph Armstrong, American ex-military. No, Peterson and his brother joined us a month ago, and they betrayed us last night, but they didn't shoot anyone." _

_"So Jorge and Kane are in hospital?" _

_"Yes. Kane told us that the freaks questioned them, but before he could tell us what they asked he was rushed off to surgery and like I said, Jorge's in a coma." _

The car pulled out and Toby whipped around, kissing Elena firmly on the lips. Moments after the car disappeared around the corner he pulled away, starting up the motor bike.

_"Who are they?" _Elena asked loudly, and Toby put his helmet on, speaking into the microphone connected to Elena's helmet so that he could explain.

_"There are two groups of people who believe in Tolkien's work. Put simply, they're run by science geeks and literature geeks." _

_"Dangerous geeks." _She remarked.

He laughed coldly. _"You have no idea. Though calling Silas a geek would be like calling Sherlock Holmes an amateur snoop. He is a genius. Fifty years ago, we – that is the science geeks-"_

_"You do not have a cool name?" _

_"The Agency." _

_"Oh, that's original." _

_"Shut up and listen. The Agency was formed when a mining accident opened a temporary portal to Middle Earth. The man that fell down it was Silas' father. He was familiar with Tolkien's work and took his own samples back to Earth. When he made to return, however, the portal had closed. Silas has since deducted that there are many ways in and out of Middle Earth but we're not sure where they all are. Anyway, Silas' father shared his work with a man called Federico Gomez Cardoza-"_

_"Any relation to my targets?" _Elena interrupted.

_"Grandfather." _Toby nodded, following the car around a corner. _"The idiot was horrified at the experiment's Silas' father performed and returned to his own group of literature geeks – or the Readers, as we call them." _

_"Another astonishingly original name." _

_"This isn't a film!" _Toby snapped, and he felt the woman on the back of his bike squirm. _"This is real life, Elena!" _

_"I'm sorry. What happened next?" _

_"Well, the Readers decided to 'protect' Middle Earth – to try and stop the two world's merging as much as possible to make sure that the people in Middle Earth were safe and to stop the Agency from doing what we will do." _

_"What we will do?" _

Toby's eyes lit up and his voice became twice as animated. _"The Readers don't see the beneficial side of Middle Earth. Medicines, gold, silver, _mithril! _Riches beyond compare, Elena! We'd be like Pizarro-"_

_"Who raped and murdered his enemy's wife. Not a nice man." Elena interrupted with a twinge of disgust. _

_"The man took out an empire. We would take out a world, and with minimal casualties. If the peoples in Middle Earth worked for us it would be a great partnership." _

_"What would they get out of it?" _

_"Most of them are not human so for most of them it does not matter." _Toby grinned beneath his helmet and split away from the car to avoid being noticed, allowing Rodriguez to take over the tail in a Volvo.

_"Oh, that is fair enough." _The young assassin nodded as she removed the motorcycle helmet from her curly head. _"For a group of geeks, they are very well established." _

_"They believed Tolkien's works from the beginning, though they have many theories and many of them disagree with each other. They're set up all over the world, just like us." _

_"Then why are there so many of you in Seville?" _

_"It was Federico Gomez Cardoza's hometown and he was the head of the Readers. His son took control when he died of cancer two years ago, and his grandchildren are Natalia and Enrique Garcia Cardoza, two of your targets. But they are not who we're tailing tonight. The other reason there are so many of us here is that Silas suspected a portal may lie nearby, because of Cardoza's long term residence, so we sent people out into the hills around Seville with a boxful of dynamite and when they found an old well they lit the fuse and dropped it down. The explosion was designed to jar open any portals that may exist, and Federico's son Vasco suspected that we were acting and called the Readers to attention. Two days later the little brat I'm looking for, Kíli son of Dis, fell through the portal." _

_"He was also in _The Hobbit_, no?" _

_"Exactly. He is Fíli's younger brother and now that the Readers know Kíli is here they will try and reunite the brothers. That's the only reason the people in that car are still alive." _

_"You're hoping that they will lead us to Kíli?" _

_"Yes. I'm surprised the kid hasn't shown up dead already, but there's a small chance he bumped into someone who could have helped him." _

Elena nodded, moving around to stare Toby in the eyes. She was beautiful, he would give her that, but her main asset from her appearance was the look of childish innocence her wide eyes gave her. Had he met her on the street, he would have had no idea that she was one of the world's most elusive assassins, but she was, and she had pledged her allegiance to him.

Toby kissed her again, whispering in her ear. _"When you kill Natalia and Enrique Garcia Cardoza, will you stay with me?" _

_"Of course." _She smiled seductively. _"I offered you my services for as long as you need them." _

After a moment of passionate kissing the two pulled and her face slipped back into the clear mask she wore when discussing business. The thirty year old looked like a girl-guide about to sell some cookies.

_"What services do _they _possess?" _

_"Well, no assassins." _He winked. _"But they have people and connections that could help them smuggle people in and out of the country. One is a double agent for us – Lola Martinez." _

_"I recognise that name…" Elena's eyes narrowed. "The forger?" _

_"The one and only. Her fake documents are among the best in the world and can be made at a day's notice, and she has never been so much as a suspect of any police investigation." _

_"You say she is a double agent?" _

_"Luckily for us her commitment to the Readers was flimsy enough to break at the right price." _

Elena nodded. _"I see. So when they park, the Volvo…" _

_"Will drive right past and call me two streets later, giving me their exact location." _

_"Excellent." _Elena grinned.

_"I couldn't have done it without your amazing electronics skills…" _he waggled his eyebrows and she laughed, gesturing at the hotel behind her.

_"I have much more amazing skills than my electronics skills, and many of them are most…ah, impressive in a bedroom environment. The call will come in a while, what do you say we take advantage of this incredible friendly-colleagues-with-benefits scheme?" _

_"I say that is a great plan."_

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Lola Martinez was crying.

She put the documents into her backpack with tears streaming down her cheeks, and as she gathered her few remaining valuables into her handbag, choked sobs forced their way out of her mouth, the same words repeated over and over.

_"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, so sorry…" _

Trembling fingers struck five matches and she threw them down into the pool of petrol in the corner of her beloved studio. Then she fired a gun three times into the floor, fleeing out of the now blazing apartment.

"Él tiene un arma, ¡oh Dios mío, tiene un arma!*" she screamed as she fled, pointing over her shoulder and disappearing into the crowded street.

_Hide, hide, hide…._her heart beat in time with her mind's desperate chant as she forced herself to slow to a walk.

She pulled a hood over her head and pushed a rapidly written letter through her friend Natalia's door, handing the backpack to the bartender who lived below with a plea for him to deliver it to either Natalia or any of her friends he recognised, and then caught a taxi to Toby Parkinson's holiday apartment, pushing a similar letter through his mail box.

Lola Martinez was crying in the last moments of her existence as she stumbled back to her apartment, and the words of goodbye she had addressed to her friend running around in her frantic mind.

_Tali,_

_Forgive me_

_Can't do it anymore_

_They'll know_

_Triple agent, too much_

_Lola is dying_

_Might need these – _

_Think they will come_

_The ones Joe asked for are here_

_Tried my hardest_

_Lost my nerve_

_Can't do anymore_

_I'm sorry_

_So sorry_

_Lola is dead. _

_Take care, Tali. _

_Love LM_

Tali would know what to do, Lola knew it even as she stared at the ferocious fire that bloomed so high and so hot that the firemen could not get close.

Calmly, Lola Martinez entered the blaze and in minutes she was consumed by the hungry flames.

The newspapers would proclaim the death the next day, and the police would rule it suicide due to the single gunshot wound to the side of the head.

Five minutes of fame would be granted to the young woman and then the apartment would be rebuilt. The Readers would lose their most valuable asset, but from respect they would mourn in silence, allowing her innocent name to be forgotten, untainted by her unsavoury profession.

No one would know the exact truth of what happened but Lola Martinez.

And Lola Martinez would be dead.

_*He's got a gun, oh my God, he's got a gun!_

**Okays, I hope that was good enough for you :) **

**I hope its not too OC heavy, do tell me what you think. And I hope to god that Fili, Kili and Bofur are in character...**

**On the horizon I think I spy several more flights, a potential reunion and maybe even a certain dwarf king poking his head into earth, as well as a peek at what Silas is up to :)**

**Review if you can, thank you very much for reading!**


	6. Chapter 6: Love, Actually

**Thanks for my reviewer, I really, really appreciate it! Anyways, here is the next chapter, I think that's all that needs saying :)**

**Anyone that gets the very obvious title reference by the end of the chapter gets virtual cookies :P **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Six # Love, Actually #**

"No!"

Natalia bit her lip worriedly. "Kyle, please-"

"No!" Kíli shook his head vigorously and folded his arms, donning his best Thorin scowl. "No, no, no."

The woman sighed and grabbed Kíli's arm. "Come _on, _Kyle!"

"No!" Kíli started to scream bloody murder, grabbing onto the chair she tried to pry him from. He had behaved himself through security, he had submitted himself to being frisked by the men with the beeping metal detecting things, and he had followed Natalia calmly to the departure gate, but there was no way he was getting on another one of those airplanes.

"Kyle, please, you're drawing too much attention to yourself!" Natalia hissed as security started to head over.

"Is there a problem ma'am?" an air hostess asked calmly.

"I'm so sorry, my cousin is-"

"I'm not going on another one of those things!" Kíli spat, clinging onto the chair stubbornly.

He could hear Natalia trying desperately to explain to the air hostess. "I'm so sorry, he's just frightened, he lost his parents recently and, well… We were on the flight in from Barcelona the other day, the one that hit the turbulence and the oxygen masks came down and it frightened him – it was only his second flight…"

The air hostess nodded, looking at Kíli. "Sir, I can assure you that what occurred on flight SQ987 is very out of the ordinary."

"It happened." Kíli retorted angrily, trying, and failing, not to glare too angrily at the air hostess. It wasn't her fault, and he knew that.

The woman nodded and stood up, talking to Natalia. "Ma'am-"

"I'm so sorry for this." Natalia gushed, looking stricken. Kíli felt a little guilty for distressing her, but he was in no way willing to get on the plane.

Enrique looked on with wide eyes, moving closer to Natalia as the air hostess spoke.

"I understand. I am very sorry that he was so frightened by what happened on another of our flights." The air hostess glanced at Kíli with pity. "If you wait here for a moment please, ma'am, I need to speak with a colleague."

As the air hostess walked away, Natalia bent down and put her hands on Kíli's shoulders, shaking him a little.

"Pull yourself _together, _Kíli!" she hissed. "Do you _want _to get caught by the Agency?"

"No…" Kíli muttered. "But I'm not getting back on one-"

"So you never want to see Fíli again?"

"Can't we just wait for him?" Kíli pleaded. "I'll get on the plane when he gets he-"

"I've already explained why you can't, Kíli. Do you want to see your mother again?"

"Yes, but-"

"Do you want to see Thorin again?"

"_Yes, _but-"

"Then listen to me-"

"Ma'am?"

Natalia stood up as the air hostess returned. "Yes?"

"I have spoken to my boss, and it appears we have several cancellations in our Business Class cabin today, and I was wondering if you would like to upgrade, if the young man would be more comfortable there."

Kíli frowned, wondering what 'Business Class' was, and Natalia sighed. "I'm afraid that I can't afford it."

"The upgrade would be free, ma'am. It was one of our flights that frightened him so and we would like to offer a free upgrade along with our sincerest apologies."

Natalia's eyes widened. "That…that would be lovely, thank you…"

The air hostess smiled. "Follow me…"

Kíli kept a tight grip on the chair, but Enrique looked at him with excitement. "Come, Kíli…Business Class…good. Very good…"

It was the younger boy's excited beckons that finally detached Kíli from the chair and drew him towards the plane. Following the air hostess, Kíli faltered as they reached the door.

"Please…" he begged one last time, but Natalia just took his hand and led him into the cabin.

It was significantly nicer than the one they had travelled in before, with bigger seats and more space, but he was still very apprehensive. The same air hostess led him to his seat and helped him to stow his bag away under the seat in front of him, bending down next to his chair as he ripped open the blanket provided and tucked it around himself before reluctantly plugging himself in.

"Now, sir-"

"My name's Kyle." Kíli said quietly and she smiled.

"Okay, Kyle. My name is Lea and if you need anything on this flight, press this button here, see, it calls me or one of my colleagues over."

"Okay…" Kíli repeated the relatively new word with a nod, pulling the belt tight and tucking his knees up under his chin.

"I hope you have a pleasant flight."

And he did. It was not fun, in any sense of the word, and he did not enjoy it, but there was not a single incident of turbulence. He slept for eight out of the nine hours, and they landed safely on the ground in Brisbane Airport with no delays, incidents or hiccups.

Somehow he was still exhausted when they arrived in Australia, and Enrique was clearly as unused to this sort of travel as Kíli was – Natalia ended up carrying her eight year old brother through Brisbane airport, steering a sleepy Kíli through with the other hand.

He curled up in the hotel bed that night and pulled the covers over his head. Soon, he would see Fíli.

Natalia had promised.

Soon he would see Fíli.

Soon.

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Thorin rose to his feet, staring around his surroundings with apprehensive wonder as the rest of his company seemed to fall from the trees above him one by one.

Brambles and thorns tore at his hands as he brushed himself off absently, the tearing of his skin solidifying in his mind just how real this was, and therefore how much greater the chance of finding his sister-sons alive had become.

"The wizard was right…" the venomous tone that Dwalin had been using for the last few days had nulled a little, pushed aside by the marvel of this new world.

"I usually am." Gandalf sounded mildly amused as he straightened his hat, and Thorin stared at him, shocked when he found himself staring the wizard in the eye. That was another thing Gandalf had guessed correctly then – the dwarves would grow taller upon entering earth.

He looked around as a foreign voice made its way to his ears.

"Thorin Oakenshield?"

Thorin turned around and the man approaching them raised his hands into the air. In an instant the king-in-exile analysed the man's appearance.

He was a little taller than Thorin with a disciplined stance and visible muscles that told Thorin that he would be a worthy adversary if it came to a fight. He had strangely short hair and no beard at all, with dark brown eyes that looked heavy with some form of grief and studied Thorin carefully, and his clothes were incredibly odd. A scar marred his right cheek proving that he had probably fought before.

Altogether, though his hands were raised in surrender, the man before them looked as though he could pose a significant threat.

"Who are you?" Thorin spat, his hand flying to his sword.

"My name is Joe Armstrong." The man said calmly. "Are you Thorin Oakenshield?"

"I am." Thorin replied slowly. "How do you know my name?"

"We've been waiting for you. I'm part of a group called the Readers; we want to help you get home. Your nephews and Bofur are all with my people. They said that we could expect you, and so we've been patrolling the woods so we can get to you before the Agency." Armstrong's voice was calm and controlled, though his eyes flickered towards the blade Thorin fingered.

"What is the Agency?" Thorin asked guardedly, ignoring the painful thudding of his heart that accompanied the man's mention of his nephews.

"A group of people who want to exploit and murder your people. I will explain more when we get to safety, will you come with me?"

"You say our kin are with your people and you announce the threat of others but you give us no reason to trust you." Thorin growled, and Armstrong nodded.

"I understand. In this world, in Earth we have these." He drew a small rectangular object from his pocket, walking slowly towards them. "They are called mobile phones and you can use them to talk to people hundreds of miles away. If you want I can call Jake Peterson, who is in Singapore accompanying Fíli and Bofur to Australia as we speak. I can talk to him and then you can talk to Fíli."

"Australia?" Thorin questioned.

"Yes, it is a country where we believe there may be people with a way to get you home, and Kíli is there now with a woman called Natalia."

"How are away are these places?"

"Hundreds of miles away, our methods of transport are very advanced compared to yours." Armstrong's words made Thorin's blood run cold.

"Hundreds of miles?"

"Let me call Peterson, you can talk to Fíli yourself."

Thorin took a deep breath. The wizard had warned them that if they wanted to survive in this strange world they would have to keep their minds open. "Very well, call your people."

Armstrong nodded and pressed on the smooth surface of the mobile phone several times before holding it up to his ear. He waited for a long moment and then spoke. "Jake, hi. Can I speak to Fíli please? Great, thanks…Hi Fíli, it's Joe. Yep, there's someone here who wants to talk to you."

He passed the mobile phone to Thorin, gesturing for him to hold it up to his ear.

"Say hello." He hinted when Thorin hesitated.

Suspiciously, Thorin obeyed. "Hello?"

Though the man had said that he would be talking with Fíli, Thorin's heart still skipped several beats when a beautifully familiar voice cried down the phone. _"Thorin! Thorin is that you?" _

"Fíli…" Thorin could not help but gasp, nor could he help the slight smile of pure relief that slipped across his lips as he gripped the phone like a lifeline. "Yes, it is me…"

_"Thorin…" _Fíli repeated. _"Thorin, I'm sorry, I'm so sorry-"_

"No, Fíli… No." Thorin insisted strongly. "Do not blame yourself for anything, Fíli."

_"But I acted rashly and Bofur got hurt and then we both fell down here, it _was _my fault, I should have listened to you." _Fíli rushed to get the words out but the sincerity of his mournful tone was intense.

"I understand." Thorin said slowly, unwilling to express the guilty sentiment he felt himself in front of the stranger. "Fíli, what do you mean Bofur got hurt?"

Bifur and Bombur both started when the words left Thorin's mouth, but Fíli's reply settled his nerves a little.

_"I sta-"_

_"You tell your Uncle I'm fine." _Bofur's voice sounded incredibly far away, but Thorin could just about make out the relief and – amusement? – in his tone. _"'s just a scratch." _

Fíli sighed. _"He says it is just a scratch." _

"Good, so he is with you?" Thorin felt another surge of relief gush through his veins.

_"Yes…We're on an airplane which is about to take off – that's like a flying machine - we're going to meet Kíli. Where are you?" _

"I am not entirely sure, I just arrived…" Thorin admitted, looking at Armstrong who was watching patiently.

"If he's asking where you are, you're still in the forests outside Seville." Armstrong guessed.

"I am told I am in the forest outside of Seville." Thorin repeated doubtfully.

_"That's where we fell down. You're with Joe - trust him, he helped us." _

"Scar on his left cheek?" Thorin asked, staring at the man.

_"Yes. He gave you the phone, he found you?" _

"Yes. Have you seen your brother?" Thorin asked worriedly.

_"In a manner of speaking, I've spoken to him on a thing called Skype, Joe will explain what it is, but he's alive, Thorin. He's alive!" _the relief in Fíli's voice was so genuine and strong that Thorin had to swallow a lump in his throat.

"You both are." Thorin knew Fíli would hear the hidden relief in that simple sentence. "You both are…"

_"Yes… How long have you been here, who is here, are you alright?" _

He could not help but smile. "The expedition is here and we are fine. We…arrived…about two minutes before this conversation began."

_"Thorin…I…" _

When Fíli paused, Thorin frowned. "Fíli?"

_"Nothing…I am just…I'm very glad to hear your voice." _Fíli's own voice was barely audible.

"I am very glad to hear your voice, too." He admitted readily.

_"Will I see you soon?" _Fíli half pleaded, and then Thorin knew.

He had raised Dis' boys with his sister since their father's death over fifty years ago, and he knew his nephews almost better than he knew himself. Fíli's weak yet guarded tone told him _exactly_ how his heir was feeling.

"Fíli, who threatened you, who hurt you?" he demanded, his eyes flashing dangerously towards Armstrong.

_"Not Joe, not the Readers. It was the Agency…" _

"What did they do?" Thorin all but growled. "Fíli, what did they do?"

Thorin hadn't thought that Fíli's voice could have gotten any quieter and still been heard. _"They caught us as soon as we fell, Bofur and I. They tied him to the wall of the truck and they put me in a cage, they said that they were looking for Kíli and that they were going to kill one of us because they only needed one of us alive. They had my bead – the one I gave to Kíli… He got away from them, he's safe now– Joe helped us to escape." _

Thorin's anger boiled in his veins but years of experience had taught him how to restrain the destructive emotion. "Did they hurt you?"

_"No, I'm alright." _Fíli said, his voice quiet.

"I will find you, Fíli." Thorin promised fiercely.

Thorin could hear the smile in Fíli's voice. _"I know you will. I know. But Thorin, I have to go, I need to turn the phone off now." _

Thorin sighed, his heart constricting painfully at the thought of saying goodbye to the nephew he thought that he had lost. "Alright. Fíli, I _will _see you soon."

_"I hope so." _

"I swear it, Fíli. I will find you."

_"I know…" _Fíli repeated. _"And I'll look after Kíli, as soon as I find him. I swear to you, I won't let him out of my sight again." _

"I know." Thorin smiled.

_"Goodbye, Uncle…" _

"Goodbye, Fíli…"

Silence descended over all of them as Thorin lowered the phone and stared at Joe Armstrong. Fíli had given no indications that he was anything but safe, and he would never have said that Kíli was safe if there was a slight chance he was not.

"My nephew seems to think you are trustworthy." Thorin eventually broke the silence and Joe Armstrong relaxed a little.

"I hope so. He's a good kid. We have a mini-bus waiting, that's a type of vehicle, a mode of transport. If you come with me I can explain our situation, who the Agency are, and I will do everything in my power to teach you how to survive in this world." He offered.

Thorin glanced over his company. If Armstrong's strange clothes were anything to go by, they all looked very out of place, but he was proud to note that they were all on their guard. "Very well. Where do you wish to take us?"

"A safe house, of sorts. Follow me."

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Dwalin leaned forward to whisper in Thorin's ear as Armstrong started to stride away, and Thorin turned back to reply in the same fashion.

"They know where Fíli and Kíli are, we do not have much choice."

"You can't return home the way you came here, it's a one way portal." Armstrong interrupted Thorin's response, turning back around to face them.

"What do you mean?" Gandalf asked, reminding Thorin of the wizard's presence.

Armstrong paused, a look of wonder lighting in his eyes. "Gandalf, I presume?"

"And how would you know that?" The wizard sounded amused.

"I'll explain when we're safe." Armstrong glanced around the woodland, pulling something from his belt. "This is called a gun; it's a weapon, and a very deadly one, far deadlier than any you possess."

Dwalin scoffed, but Thorin put a hand on his arm.

"Oh, really?" Gandalf raised an eyebrow and started after Armstrong.

Steeling his overwrought nerves Thorin followed the wizard and the man further into the woods.

Armstrong led them to the mini-bus where a woman he introduced as Tashi was waiting. They drove to a block shaped building on the corner of the large town they were approaching and then smuggled the dwarves and wizard inside, leading them up to in incredibly strange place called an 'apartment'.

They sat around the table and Joe offered them some stew, which they readily accepted, though their guard remained high as the promised explanations drew near.

Joe cleared his throat. "The first thing I should mention is that as a company you are very well known in our world – a story most people assume to be a children's tale called _The Hobbit _depicts a journey you would, or will maybe, have taken in just over twenty years."

"As a company?" Thorin's eyes narrowed.

"Well Fíli, Kíli and Bofur are already here, and if I am correct and your names are Bifur, Bombur, Ori, Nori, Dori, Óin, Glóin, Dwalin and Balin then you make up the company of Thorin Oakenshield. You, sir." He gestured to each member of the group in turn, finishing with Thorin himself.

Thorin watched Dori and Nori automatically shift in front of Ori, and Glóin and Dwalin both reached for their axes as their names were called.

"What happens in this story?" Thorin asked, but Armstrong shook his head

"I'm not sure that it would be a good idea to tell you. I thought that it happened 3000 years ago. There's an expert in Australia – where your kin are headed, who can tell you more than I can – it was her theory that the events of _The Hobbit _haven't actually taken place yet. At the moment they – Bofur, Fíli and Kíli, sorry – are travelling under aliases because, to put it bluntly, you don't exist in our world."

"What aliases?" Thorin questioned, a little curious.

"Kíli is travelling under the name of Kyle Durrant, Fíli is going as Finnley Durrant and Bofur as Beau Ferguson. Or counterfeiter made documentation for all of you when Bofur told us that you would be coming."

"Oh really?"

"Yes, she used images from a film which I will talk about later. Either way, here are your aliases which I strongly suggest you use in public. Not only are your names really weird by most people's standards but like I said before – by most people's accounts, you don't exist."

Thorin looked at a long list of very strange names with a slight frown.

_Thorin Oakenshield – Thomas Oakley_

_Balin, son of Fundin – Barry Funder _

_Dwalin, son of Fundin – Dwayne Funder_

_Óin, son of Gróin – Owen Gross_

_Glóin, son of Gróin – Gross_

_Bifur ? – Blythe Ferguson_

_Bombur ? – Bobby Ferguson _

_Dori ? – Donald Reilly_

_Nori ? – Noel Reilly _

_Ori ? – Ollie Reilly _

Underneath the familiar names was a hastily written note.

_Wasn't sure if these would be useful going by the ages of F and K but you never know. _

_Gandalf the Grey (probs) – Garry Grayson _

_Bilbo Baggins – Billy Guinness_

"Who is Bilbo Baggins?" Thorin asked Joe with a frown.

"Uh…"

"Bilbo Baggins?" Gandalf frowned. "He is a hobbit of the Shire, I knew his grandfather…"

"Why is the name of a halfling on this list?" Thorin rephrased his question.

"Because he _is _the hobbit in _The Hobbit. _Look, I don't know how much I should tell you because I never expected to meet someone from your age. My friend Eliza Frost, however was working on the theory that you were living at the same time as us, so she probably has more of an idea of what to say. She was also the one working on theories about opening portals to Middle Earth and things like that – only for situations like this, mind."

"So my nephews and Bofur…"

"Kíli arrived about a week ago and ran into the head of the Agency, a sick psychopathic bastard called Silas – we don't know his surname. He managed to run away and ran into an eight year old kid called Enrique whose parents were Readers. Kíli actually witnessed their murders which he was able to relate to us. Enrique doesn't speak much English, that's what we're speaking now, by the way, and he took Kíli back to his sister who does. Natalia actually spent ten years in school in England but anyway…she recognised Kíli's heritage and the threats that posed him if he stayed here so she contacted us and we got her documentation quickly for her to leave the country and head to Australia with her brother and Kíli. The story is that 'Tali' and 'Rico' are travelling with their English cousin Kíli who recently lost his parents. It's a reasonable explanation in this world." Joe went on to explain about Fíli and Bofur's arrival and rescue, about where they were now and about as much of the day to day technology he could think of.

By the time he had finished, the sun had set and the night had well and truly begun, and Thorin's head was hurting slightly with all the information.

A strange noise suddenly began and Joe held up the phone meaningfully. "Phone call. Hello?"

As the noise cut off his eyes widened and he sank back in his chair with a sigh of relief.

"I thought you'd never call…No, no…Did you hear about Lola? I know…she left us some- yeah, that's right. The police say suicide. I agree with you, Tali, but I don't know who else will. I didn't say that. How are the boys? Good, because Thorin Oakenshield has arrived… Yes, seriously. Ow, what _is _that?" Joe winced, though his eyes sparkled with a grin. "One excited dwarf, huh? Yep, I can imagine that." He looked up at Thorin. "Kíli wants to talk to you. Ow, okay, okay!" he laughed as he flinched away from the phone. "He says he _needs _to talk to you."

_~ The Hobbit ~_

"Now, remember, your brother's name is-"

"Finlay Durrant and he's travelling with our Uncle Beau Ferguson and our parents died in a car crash a month ago and you're my cousin and we're in Australia for a holiday and my other Uncle will be here in a few days' time and I can't wait!" Kíli bounced up and down on the spot, staring at the small door that said 'Arrivals'. "When's he going to be here?"

"Soon." Natalia glanced up at one of the boards nearby and then looked at her watch. The plane was late, but that didn't mean anything, surely. Planes were late all the time.

The news that Lola Martinez had died had hit her hard, but Natalia could not help but be proud of her friend. The woman had created documentation not only for Fíli and Bofur, but for the entirety of Thorin Oakenshield's company, including Gandalf and Bilbo Baggins, guessing that they may follow shortly.

Suicide, Joe claimed that the police had called it. Spying on the Agency while they thought she was spying for them had snapped her already fraying nerves – apparently she had been seeing a therapist for a while.

Natalia didn't believe it at all.

Speaking of nerves, Natalia felt her stomach churn as potential problems flooded her brain.

And then came the sound that stopped the entire airport. It was akin to a scream, but it was filled with relief and with hope and joy and _love_ so sincere that even several security guards gave a little smile.

_"Fee!" _

Kíli leapt over the barrier and ran as quickly as his legs could carry him towards his emerging brother, who dropped the bag he was carrying and gasped in relief and delight.

The crowd around Natalia cheered and 'aw'ed as the two boys collided into a fierce embrace and she smiled wryly.

Kíli's face was instantly buried in Fíli's shirt and the older brother, who was currently about a head taller, squeezed his eyes closed and pulled his younger brother even closer, resting his chin on Kíli's head.

Their lips were moving quickly but Natalia couldn't quite make out the words and she was glad. They may have been in public but the moment looked incredibly private and it was clear that the two brothers' words were meant for each other and no one else. Bofur emerged seconds after Fíli and smiled at the two of them, picking up Fíli's small suitcase wordlessly as Blake and Jake followed him out.

After a long moment the two brothers separated and Kíli gave Bofur the sunniest smile that Natalia had ever seen. The older dwarf ruffled the boy's hair.

Introductions were made quickly, with Fíli, Bofur and the Peterson brothers all exhausted from the long, twice delayed flight, and Natalia felt guilty as she explained that they had to now catch another plane in two hours.

"It's only an hour to Rockhampton." She tried to console the groaning boys – Blake, Jake and Bofur included.

To her surprise, the only one who did not complain was Kíli. He made no fuss through security, nor did he as much as grimace as they boarded the plane. Instead, he quietly lifted up the armrest that separated him from Fíli and curled up against his brother's chest. Fíli leant his head on Kíli and the two brothers slipped into sleep.

Or so they all thought.

_"Fee?" _Kíli breathed, so quietly that only his brother could hear him.

_"Mmh?" _Fíli replied, weaving Kíli's hair around his fingers.

_"I'm…I'm sorry, but I'm glad you're here. I'm sorry – I don't want you to be in danger and I would just die if you got hurt but I-"_

_"Shh!" _Fíli whispered, hugging his brother closer. _"I'm glad I'm here too. And if I get hurt, don't you dare die." _

_"Okay…" _Kíli's voice got even quieter and he grabbed Fíli's other hand. _"Love you, Fee." _

Fíli smiled. His brother, his baby brother, was back in his arms where he could look after him. His uncle was on his way to take them home.

For the moment, even in this crazy world, life was good.

_"Love you more, Kee." _

**Hope that that was good and not too soppy or anything for you all :) **

**So this was quite a nice chapter for our characters, wasn't it? The next chapter will I will be back with happy frolicking down the beach –**

**Or alternatively everything goes to hell. **

**And it is me writing, so saddle up for some major angst coming your way :)**

**Thanks for reading, please review and tell me whether you all like angst, fluff or a nice healthy mix :) **


	7. Chapter 7: Trouble in Paradise

**Hola! This is a massive quickie, my internet is being cut off any second so I'm sorry for mistakes, thanks for reviewing and I really hope that you enjoy this! **

**Oh and also – I took the name Keppel Sands from some random place in Queensland, Australia near to a place I know very well, and have based the little stuff in Keppel Sands off of the place I know. I have never been to the real Keppel Sands and have no idea what its like, here is your disclaimer. **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Seven # Trouble In Paradise #**

Fíli woke with a yawn, blinking for a moment as he tried to discern where he was. A smile spread across his lips as he realised that the weight currently cutting the circulation off of the right side of his body was Kíli.

He peered out of the moving mini-bus with bleary eyes, blinking again as the Australian countryside flew past the window, the landscapes made even more beautiful by the pinks and peaches thrown down by the setting sun.

"Good evening." Natalia smiled in the rear-view mirror as she drove.

Fíli tried to stifle his yawn. "G'd even'ng."

"We'll be there soon." Natalia stifled a yawn herself. "I'm pretty sure that Keppel Sands is only fifteen minutes away or so."

Fíli nodded, looking down at Kíli, who had slipped into his lap sometime during the night. His little brother's face was peaceful and calm as it usually was when he slept, but as Fíli watched, Kíli's mouth twitched into a frown and his eyes began to move under his eyelids.

A soft gasp escaped Kíli's lips as he started twitching and squirming, before he started to whimper fearfully.

Fíli shook Kíli's shoulders gently. "Wake up, Kíli. It's only a dream, wake up…"

Kíli woke with a loud gasp, flying up out of Fíli's lap and consequently smashing into the chair in front of him.

"Ow!"

"Kíli!" Fíli cried quietly, putting an arm on his brother's shoulder. "Are you alright?"

Kíli blinked, turning his suddenly pale face towards Fíli. "Fee? Oh, Fíli!"

Fíli barely had time to blink before Kíli flung his arms around his neck and buried his face in Fíli's neck.

"Fee!"

"Can't – breathe!" Fíli choked, but Kíli's hands didn't loosen, they only moved a little so he was clutching Fíli's back and body instead of his neck. Fíli instantly held Kíli close and whispered in his ear. "What happened, Kíli? What did you dream?"

Kíli just shook his head.

"It was just a dream, Kíli."

"R'lly 'thtc." Kíli mumbled, his body shaking.

"What?"

"It's really pathetic." Kíli murmured a little louder.

Fíli gave a humourless laugh. "Nothing that upsets you that much is pathetic, Kee."

"Tis so." Kíli replied, his face still buried in Fíli's shirt.

"Just tell me, Kíli."

"I dreamt that it was a dream. I dreamt that I woke up and you weren't really here, that you were still at home and you were…you were…"

"What?" Fíli pressed.

"Happy." Kíli whispered in a voice that Fíli could barely hear. "You were happy I was gone…you had Mama and Thorin our room all to yourself and you were happy that I was gone and not bugging you and-"

"Stop!" Fíli's own voice cracked. "Stop, Kíli!"

"I'm sorry!" Kíli whimpered, cuddling even closer to Fíli.

"Don't be sorry, just…it _killed _me, Kíli! I could never be happy if you…" Fíli shuddered, rubbing Kíli's back. "I'm here, with you and I'll be here with you until we're both older and greyer and wrinklier than Gróin."

"Promise?" Kíli sniffed, stubbornly keeping his face hidden.

"I promise." Fíli smiled. "You're not pathetic, Kíli son of Dís. You couldn't be pathetic if you transformed into a drowned kitten."

"That's not pathetic." Kíli protested, finally lifting his face from Fíli's shirt. He shifted back into his own seat but snuggled up against Fíli's side. "That's just sad."

Fíli smiled, shifting the arm around Kíli into a more comfortable position. "You have a point."

"Of course I do!" Kíli laughed.

"We're here." Natalia announced as the car stopped suddenly. Blake and Jake, who were in the seats in front of Fíli and Kíli, both woke with a start, though Bofur and Enrique both took a little more coaxing before they roused.

Fíli was very glad to stretch his legs when he hopped out of the van but he swayed a little the moment he tried to support his own weight.

"Fíli!" Kíli grabbed Fíli's arm and the blond grinned reassuringly at him.

"Thank you, Kíli. I'm alright…Just tired."

"Sure, sure…" Kíli muttered with a grin, but Fíli thought he could see a glimpse of fear in his brother's eyes.

"I'm _alright, _Kíli."

Kíli just huffed and grinned at Bofur, who was climbing out of the van with a slightly green expression.

The dwarf put his hands on Fíli and Kíli's shoulders as they stared up at the large house they were standing outside. A strange sound met Fíli's ears and he grimaced slightly as he tried to figure out what it was.

"What's that noise?" he turned to Bofur and he frowned.

"What noise?"

"That sound, it's like the wind but it isn't."

"That's the sea!" Blake yawned. "We'll take you to see it…tomorrow…when I've slept."

"The sea?" Kíli gasped, turning to Fíli with a new light in his eyes. "That's so cool!"

"Cool?"

"Yeah, cool, it's a word, Fíli!" Kíli said impatiently. "I've never ever seen the sea before!"

"Sucks to be you!" Blake sang, before yawning again as a woman walked out of the house.

"Oh, Jacob, Blakely!" she grinned, grabbing the full grown men and kissing them on both cheeks, before doing the same with the Spanish siblings. "Tali, and little Rico, I haven't seen you since you were, what, two years old? I'm so glad to see youse!"

"Youse?" Kíli whispered to Fíli.

"It's plural of you." The woman smiled gently at Kíli, who jumped. "You must be Fíli, Kíli and Bofur."

Fíli was a little surprised when Kíli shrank into his side a little more, but he held his chin up high. "Yes."

"I'm Eliza Frost, welcome to my home. I suppose right now all you want to do right now is sleep, so here's what we have – my granddaughter Elsie is staying with me in my room, so I have three rooms with two bedroom in each, that leaves one person who could take the couch or an-"

"It's alright, we can share a bed." Fíli offered, glancing at Kíli.

"It wouldn't be fair for someone to take the couch when I'll probably just get in with Fíli anyway. We could share a room with Bofur?" Kíli nodded, giving Eliza his most angelic grin.

"Are you sure?" when both boys nodded, Eliza smiled. "Alright then, let's get youse inside."

Fíli could not stop yawning as he followed Kíli into the house. At Bofur's insistence, he reluctantly threw himself through the shower and then clambered into bed, falling asleep the moment his head hit the pillow.

By the time Kíli came out of the shower Fíli was snoring lightly, and he couldn't imagine a better lullaby. Sneaking across the room and listening to the strange sounds of the new place, Kíli slipped under the covers and snuggled up to his brother.

When he woke the next morning, Fíli was still fast asleep. Unwilling to wake his brother, Kíli tried to detangle himself from Fíli but it proved to be a little more difficult than he thought that it would be.

"Mornin'." Bofur nodded at him from the other bed.

"Mornin'." Kíli repeated quietly, still trying to wriggle out from under Fíli's arm.

Suddenly Fíli rolled over and moved his arm as if sensing that his brother was trying to escape and Kíli's momentum took him over the edge with a yelp.

"Ow!" he groaned, rubbing his backside as Bofur laughed. "'s not funny."

"It's very funny." Bofur countered, crossing the room to offer him his hand.

"Thanks…" Kíli smiled, looking over his shoulder at Fíli.

"It's good to see you, laddie." Bofur smiled at Kíli fondly.

Kíli grinned and there was a knock on the door. It opened itself and Enrique gave Kíli a grin. "Breakfast ready now, please."

"Okay." Kíli grinned, turning and bouncing on Fíli. "Wake up sleepy-head, breakfast's ready!"

"Ow, Kíli, get off me!" Fíli groaned, before getting up slowly. "Where're my clothes?"

"Can come in…um…pyjamas!" Enrique smiled shyly at Fíli who nodded.

"Let's go then."

Enrique led them to the table where the others were already gathered, including a teenage girl with long blonde hair streaked with bright pink.

"Hi." She sang, waving her toast at them as she entered.

Instantly Kíli wrinkled up his nose. "What is _that?" _

She raised an eyebrow, her expression instantly changing from amiable to scathing. "I'm Elsie."

Kíli turned a brighter shade of pink than her hair. "No, no – I'm sorry, that's not what I meant! I was talking about the stuff on your toast!"

She laughed, staring at the blackened bread, the friendliness returning to her face at once. "Oh, that's vegemite."

"Vegemite?" Kíli repeated. "It looks like oil."

"If you think that looks like oil you should wait until you see marmite. That's our English version but it's horrible, don't try it." Blake shuddered as he spread a dollop of vegemite over his toast.

"Here, try it." Elsie offered Kíli another piece of toast and he took a curious bite.

"Ugh!" he gagged. "Forgive me, but that's horrible!"

Elsie laughed again. "Well you either love it or you hate it."

Kíli passed the bread to Fíli, who stared at it suspiciously before taking a bite of his own. "What are you talking about, you dunderhead? This is good."

"Coming from the dwarf who ate a cockroach. No thank you."

Fíli glared at his brother. "I was two years old."

"No excuse. I was already turning my nose up at vegetables by that age." Kíli boasted proudly and Elsie laughed.

"You two are exactly how I imagined you."

Both boys glanced at each other.

"Um, thank you, I think…" Kíli frowned.

Eliza walked into the room, a bowl of fruit in her hands. "Elsie, are you weirding the dwarves out."

"Yep." The teenager grinned, stealing an apple from the fruit bowl.

"No." Fíli and Kíli protested together.

"Well just hit her if she is." Eliza winked, and Elsie groaned.

"Gran!"

"Are you going to school today?"

Elsie looked at her grandmother as if she had sprouted three heads. "What do you think?"

"That you should stop giving me attitude." Eliza said mildly, sorting out the cutlery.

"Sorry, Gran. What I meant to say was that I have come down with a serious case of, um…glandular fever."

"Lasts too long." Blake interrupted, his mouth full of food and Elsie sighed.

"Fine, um…SMALLPOX. So I will not be able to return to school for a while."

"Thought so. You call your mother, I'll call the school."

"Oh, do I have to?" Elsie groaned.

"Yes, now."

As the teenager left the room, Eliza motioned for Kíli, Fíli and Bofur to take seats at the table. "Try whatever you like. If you don't like it that's no problem, just leave it and I'll stick it on the compost heap. I can't imagine you've tried half of this stuff before…"

"No, ma'am." Kíli agreed, trying not to lick his lips like an animal.

"And while you eat I'll talk if you like-"

"Wait for me!" Elsie yelled from the other room. "Please!"

Eliza rolled her eyes as Fíli and Kíli exchanged amused glances. "Sorry about Elise, she's just a little bit excitable."

"What is this?" Kíli asked curiously, picking up one of the round fruits.

"It's a passion fruit. I'll grab you a spoon for that if you want to try some…"

Kíli nodded eagerly. "Yes please!"

"I also have some normal toast and ham here as well." Eliza noted. "So don't feel like you have to try anything if you don't want to."

Two passion fruits, one banana, two and a half kiwis, three pieces of grapefruit and half a mango later, Kíli sat back in his chair with a grateful smile for his host.

"I like your food."

Eliza laughed. "Have you tried chocolate yes?"

"Of course!" Natalia butted in. "What sort of neglectful guardian do you think I am?"

"What's chocolate?" Fíli frowned, and Kíli's eyes lit up.

"The best food ever!"

"Really?" Fíli raised an eyebrow.

"Really!" Kíli insisted.

Elsie walked back into the room with Jake and Enrique. "The living room's ready when you are."

"Thanks, darl." Eliza smiled, gesturing to the door into the next room. "Shall we?"

Offering her guests the comfy couch, Eliza sat down on one of the many chairs around the room. "Elsie, will you do the dishes please?"

Elsie groaned but stood up. "Yep."

"So, Fíli. I've been told that you're sixty?"

"Yes."

"Great, that's great, that fits."

"Fits what?" Kíli asked curiously.

"My timeline. Right, I'm going to tell you about a theory that I came up with, oh…thirty years ago. Most Readers thought that Tolkien's works were set about three thousand years ago because by most accounts, Tolkien himself thought that he was writing an alternate history for our world. Thirty years ago, in Oxford, England, I discovered some documents hidden in the university where Tolkien used to work. It was a handwritten account of a journey taken by a man into Middle Earth, something I originally believed to be useless drabbles from Tolkien's early planning days. However, when I read closely, the account told that the man became immensely confused as his eyes were opened to the glory of the world and the events that had passed as well as events that were yet to come. This is a journey I believe Tolkien took, the journey which first allowed Middle Earth to be known here. According to _my _theory, Tolkien was gifted with a powerful foresight when he entered Middle Earth, and most of his tales were indeed set in the future. Why he said it was the past is anyone's guess – some say that he was confused by all the knowledge, some say that he tried to cover up the world even more… I got further proof when I examined one of the weapons we recovered from the Agency, one that a man called Jeb stole from an elf he had…experimented on. Jeb was Silas' father."

Kíli felt shivers run up his spine and he unconsciously moved closer to his brother as she continued.

"It was not a famous blade, but it was mentioned in a lesser known essay by Tolkien on the Lord of the Rings, and it was said to be distinguishable by the two notches on the hilt – one in the shape of a 'y' caused in a skirmish shortly after Smaug took the Lonely Mountain, and one in the shape of a 'z' that was created in the Battle of Helm's Deep in what will be around eighty years from now."

"So you deducted that we had to be in a specific time frame." Bofur clarified, sitting back in his chair. "That's pretty smart."

"Thank you." Eliza smiled. "That's pretty much my theory."

"Do you know why Bofur looks like Bofur in the movie?"

"You've seen the movie?" Eliza frowned.

"It was an accident." Natalia admitted. "A stupid mistake."

"No…" Eliza mused. "One thing we are all sure about is that the worlds are somehow linked, and that when darkness takes one of our worlds it will not be long before the other follows. Going by the Lord of the Rings it would be best if everything happens as accurately as possible so watching the film or reading…the…book…"

"What?" Kíli pressed as the woman trailed off, looking at him with a strange expression.

"No, just the movie. If that. But I suppose if Kíli's seen it Fíli should, because if you're half as close as most interpretations suggest you will tell him anyway." Eliza gave them a wry smile. "And to answer your question… In the account I told you of before, the one where Tolkien entered Middle Earth, he spoke of a spell, a powerful spell that the wizards and elves had made. If the stories of Middle Earth were told or retold by those with the highest level of skill, then ideas would plant themselves in their minds regarding appearance and personality, and the ability to recreate the people as accurately as possible would be granted to them. I'm not sure why the spell was created; you would have to ask a very old wizard or a very old elf."

"Thank you." Kíli smiled. "That makes sense."

"I'm glad."

"How can we get home?" Fíli asked hopefully and the woman winced.

"Well we believe that we _may _have a way of opening a portal out in the bush here, we've been getting ready since we heard that you were on your way. But we've never tried it before and there's no guarantee that it will work. If it doesn't, the next step would probably be New York or LA."

Elsie entered the room, instantly picking up on the sombre mood. "Gran, can I take the little people to the beach?"

Bofur, Kíli and Fíli looked affronted but Eliza held up a hand. "She doesn't mean that offensively, she just means the children."

Elsie blushed. "Sorry. But can I? It's high tide and there's plenty of water in the enclosure for swimming."

With permission from all the adults involved, Kíli, Fíli, Rico and Elise spent the whole day on the beach.

At first it was a little awkward for them all as timidity got in the way of having fun, but as soon as Elsie threw Rico into the sea and Kíli asked desperately for a go, all walls fell down and the four spent two whole hours ducking and splashing each other.

They each nearly drowned on at least one occasion, but it was the most fun any of the boys had had in a week.

Elsie proved to be great company. The seventeen year old not only answered any questions they had and explained things they did not quite understand, but she also acted more like a boy than any girls Fíli or Kíli knew. She insisted that she was just normal for someone from earth and that they were just blinded by stereotypes. They insisted she was just much more fun than any girls in the Blue Mountains.

They reached a compromise at lunch, feasting on hot pies and chips from the local post office. Elsie introduced the dwarf brothers to the incredible world of slushies and ice creams with everyone receiving one of each and then they walked up the beach to an area of rocks and caves and scrambled for the early part of the afternoon, looking in the rock-pools with the infinite curiosity of those who had never before seen the sea. Enrique also seemed to be enjoying himself, speaking more and more as he gained confidence in his shaky English skills.

By the time they got home they had missed Thorin's call, but Fíli and Kíli were dismayed to find out that their uncle had reached some complications. Bofur explained that Thorin had promised to call as soon as he could but that he may be out of touch for a while, and that it would take the rest of the company longer than usual to get there.

They spent two weeks with Eliza and Elsie, but most of the time Eliza, Jake, Natalia and often Bofur disappeared into Eliza's study – a secretive room locked with a passcode that even Elsie was banned from - to discuss ways to create portals and sharing theories, leaving Blake to entertain the three boys with the ever helpful Elsie.

Despite Thorin's lack of appearance, the twenty one year old man and seventeen year old women managed to keep Fíli, Kíli and Rico distracted daily, driving them up into the nearby mountain ranges to swim in the gorges or spy for platypus, or taking them into town and steadily introducing Kíli and Fíli to the workings of a modern city. They went to museums and national parks, they went hiking and shopping, and they played video games and sports. Enrique, or Rico as he quickly became known fondly, had never left Spain before, so the experiences were as new to him as him they were to Fíli and Kíli.

Exactly two weeks after they arrived, Blake was invited to one of the adults' secret meetings, much to Jake's disdain. It had soon become clear that the Peterson brothers had issues, most of which stemmed from Blake's adamant belief that he was mature and Jake's belief that he wasn't.

Kíli couldn't understand it to be honest, he like both of the brothers. Even as his worry grew for Thorin, his trust grew in the Peterson brothers and in Eliza and Natalia and Elsie and Rico.

"I like the day on beach." Rico smiled, before turning to Kíli with a frown. "What did I get wrong?"

"Did you mean 'I like spending the day on the beach'?"

Rico grinned. "Yep. I did mean that."

"Well I agree with you." Kíli smacked the ball Elsie threw at him with the rounders bat. "It's nice to do nothing sometimes."

"You call this nothing?" Elsie scoffed while Fíli sprinted across the beach after the ball. "We're outside. Doing nothing is sitting around for the whole day on Facebook and Tumblr."

"What're Facebook and Tumblr?"

Elsie laughed. "Oh, I have left a huge hole in your education. I'll show you when we get home."

They were happily exhausted and ready for dinner as the sun started to set, and the four friends turned and walked back to Eliza's house.

"Gran, I'm home!" Elsie called, stepping through the door.

"What's that smell?" Kíli wrinkled his nose up and Fíli suddenly grabbed both of their collars and dragged them back.

"Hey!"

"Fíli-"

"That's blood."

"What?" Elsie looked irritated but Kíli froze.

"Are you sure?"

"Yes…" Fíli glanced to the side and shifted the rounders bat in his hand so it was held like a weapon.

"I think you're overreacting." Elsie sounded more hopeful than she did confident.

"Shouldn't someone have responded to you by now?"

"No one heard, they might be watching a movie or something." She shrugged.

Fíli sniffed and winced. "That's blood."

Elsie stepped further inside and inhaled intensely. "Oh my god! Gran!"

"Kíli, stay here." Fíli insisted, shoving his brother in a nearby cupboard, but Kíli pushed the door back open.

"No."

"Kíli-"

"No." Kíli took a step closer to his brother. "You promised."

Cursing under his breath, Fíli took Kíli's hand as they opened the door into the living room. Fíli gasped and Kíli screamed, bringing Elsie and Rico running.

"Oh god!" Elsie wailed, running to Blake's side, and Rico started to cry. The young man was lying on the floor, a gun in his hand, covered in his own blood. His terror filled eyes were still open. Elsie grabbed his bloodied wrist and felt desperately for a pulse, but all she could feel was his cool skin. "Oh my god…We have to find the others…"

Fíli nodded and started to look around the room.

"Blood trail." Kíli pointed out reluctantly.

"Police?" Rico asked tearfully, but Elsie shook her head.

"Later."

Kíli followed the blood trail slowly into the next bedroom and moaned loudly. Natalia was eagle spread on the bed, her unseeing eyes staring at the ceiling. Unsticking his legs from the floor, Kíli ran to the side and grabbed her wrist, feeling desperately for a pulse.

"Please be okay…" he whispered. "Please be okay! Oh god, Fíli! Fíli!"

Fíli ran in and froze. "Oh my god…"

"She's not breathing, she's all cold!" Kíli cried, his eyes widening as he spotted Rico at the door. "Rico, no!"

"Tali!" the eight year old screamed, vaulting onto the bed and shaking his sister's shoulders desperately. "Tali, wake up! Por favor, por favor!"

Elsie appeared at the door, tears streaking down her cheeks and she raced over, grabbing the child off of the bed and throwing him over onto her hip like a toddler before grabbing Kíli's hand and ushering them out of the room.

"¡No!" Rico screamed desperately. "¡No, Tali, Tali! ¡Mi hermana, es mi hermana! ¡Quiero Tali, Tali por favor!"

"Come on, Rico." Elsie murmured over the little boy's screams. "I'm so sorry, but we have to go."

"Tali!" he wailed, reaching over her shoulders.

"Bofur!" Kíli called desperately, running into the bedroom he shared with his brother and friend. "Jake, Eliza, Bofur!"

His eyes were drawn to the blood pooling out from under the bed, and with a heavy heart he looked down under the bed. He frowned and crawled underneath. Right at the back of the bed was a little note, an arrow drawn in the blood pointing towards it. Familiar runes were scrawled across the paper but they weren't Khuzdul. They were part of a code all of the children of Ered Luin were taught when they were growing up for serious emergencies only – it was a code more protected than Khuzdul itself, and no one else was taught it.

Bofur's use of the rune system would have told him that it was an emergency if the house was full of living people and smelled of baking cookies.

_If you're reading this we've gone – dead, taken or run. If I've run, meet me at the bat cave before the end of the day. If I do not show, I'm taken or dead. Do not wait for me. Take the safe box under the floor in the study – code to get in is 30948. Fly to LA and meet with Elsie's father. _

_Bofur. _

"Guys?" Kíli called shakily.

"Kíli!" Fíli yelled when he came into the room. "What happened?"

"It's not my blood!" Kíli said quickly, scrambling out from underneath the bed and showing his brother the letter.

"What is that?"

"No!" Kíli said quickly, hiding it from Elsie's view. "The code, it's secret, for emergencies only, and if I show you then I can't tell you what it says."

Elsie closed her eyes and exhaled, keeping her patience as far as she could. "Okay…just tell me what it says."

Kíli read the letter aloud, in a shaky voice.

Elsie gave a little sob but nodded, shifting Rico on her hip. "Okay, here's what we're going to do. Kíli, you have the note, you grab the safe box. Fíli, check _every room, _and make sure no one else is here…hurt or…d…Rico and I are going to grab the emergency bags, we meet back in the hall in five minutes okay?"

Kíli nodded and ran to the study door. It looked untouched. He punched in the code and pushed open the door, his mouth falling open a little at the sight of all of the equipment. He shook his head and concentrated, scanning the floor. On the corner of one of the tiles was a single rune written in black ink, a merging of the letters F and K.

He reached to the next tile and eased it up off the floor, snatching the safe box underneath and turning tail. A strange scent caught his nose and he turned in time to see a live fuse in place of the box.

He raced out of the room and slammed the door behind him as the room burst into flames with a soft whoosh…

"We're leaving." Elsie cried, opening a bag for him to put the box in and then slinging it over his back. Rico was still crying bitterly and reaching for the room where his dead sister lay, but Elsie was successfully blocking her ears, though tears continually poured from her eyes.

"Fee!" Kíli cried, and his brother emerged from the bedroom.

"There's no one else here. Do you think they're okay?"

Elsie said nothing, but held open the door for him. The street was dark and black by now, the sun set quickly here. She led them through the campsite to the beach that lay not two minutes away and they snuck across the top of the beach to the cave Bofur had mentioned in his letter, the bat cave as Elsie had fondly named it as a young child.

"Bofur?" Kíli called shakily as he took up the rear. "Bofur are you here?"

A hand burst out of the darkness and wrapped around Kíli's mouth, muffling his scream as he was dragged further into the black cave.

"Kíli?" Fíli frowned as he turned around, his heart falling. "Kíli! Kí-"

"Uh, uh, uh, little boy." A woman emerged from the dark, her hand over Kíli's mouth and a gun pressed up against his head. "You be very quiet or your little friend is dead."

"Please…" Elsie gasped instantly as Rico curled further into her side, his eyes wide with fear.

"Don't!" Fíli added, and the woman laughed coldly.

"I am one of the most elusive assassins in the world, child. If I want to paint the wall with his brains a few words will not dissuade me, so here is what is going to happen. When I count to three, you are going to tell me where Thorin Oakenshield is. If you have not told me by three, I shoot him."

"What?" Elsie's eyes widened. "But-"

"One."

"We don't know!" Fíli cried, his eyes locking with Kíli's and his heart thudding painfully in his chest.

"Two."

"I have no idea!" Elsie screamed.

"Two and a half…"

"Fíli!" Kíli whispered desperately.

"Don't!"

The woman sighed. "Bored now. Three."

"NO!"

_Bang. _

And just like that Fíli's world changed forever.

**Sorry for the even more OCs but anyways, things are heating up! As I have just proven to you, I am not above killing characters (though OCs can be easier to kill occasionally) so leave a review if you hope Kili will be okay :) **


	8. Chapter 8: The Great Escape

**Thanks so much for my reviews last chapter, here is the update as promised. I am majorly depressed because I am leaving Australia behind and going back home to England as I type. I am actually uploading from Singapore – a four hour respite in 24 hours of pure flying. URGH! So anyone feeling particularly generous, reviews might help the jet lag fade faster ;)**

**Also, sorry for any spelling or grammer mistakes – for reasons stated above I am extremely tired and cannot be held accountable for the quality of the proof checking in this chapter ;)**

**Anyways, I hope this chapter's good, the next chapter is already in the works :) **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Eight # The Great Escape #**

_Two Weeks Ago_

Thorin had no idea how they had been captured, and that worried him. The last he remembered, Joe Armstrong and the Tashi woman had taken Gandalf to a 'magic show' for light amusement, but each and every dwarf declined, with varying levels of politeness. He had gone to sleep in the 'safe-house' and woken up in this…place…chained to a wall in a concrete cell.

His first thought was that it was just his luck to come on a rescue mission and end up needing rescuing himself, but he soon had other things pressing on his mind.

"Now, read out everything I type, if you say _anything_ else or give any indication that you are under duress I will order Elena to shoot both of your nephews in the gut. That would mean that they would die slowly and painfully, and I swear to you, I will do it." Their captor informed him.

At least he assumed that he was 'their' captor – they had certainly implied that the rest of his company were nearby, but he could neither see nor hear them, and through the barred door of his cell he could see only a short corridor and a heavily sealed door – not enough room for the whole company anyway.

Thorin nodded curtly to signal that he understood and the man held the phone to his ear in time for the ringing to stop.

_"Hello?" _

"Bofur…" Thorin read, glaring at the man but keeping his tone even.

_"Thorin! How are you all?" _

"We are fine." Thorin tried to unclench his teeth. "How are the boys?"

_"They're both fine, they're on the beach at the moment." _

"Ah, alright." Thorin read.

_"Do you want me to call them in to talk to ye?" _

"No, no…" Thorin read the words as they appeared. "I just called to say that we're facing some…complications."

_"Complications?" _Bofur queried.

"I cannot explain over the phone, but we have been compromised and it may take us a little while to reach you. We are safe, but we will unable to contact you for a while."

Bofur cursed. _"You sure you're alright? Is there anything I can do?" _

"Just keep Fíli and Kíli safe."

_"Of course."_

"I have to go." Thorin sighed heavily.

_"Alright, call when you can." _

"I will."

The man snatched the phone. "Well done, Oakenshield."

Thorin stubbornly kept his mouth shut.

A small woman in a long white coat walked in with a mask covering her nose and mouth pushing a cart before her. The man studied the shackles binding Thorin to the wall and floor as the woman walked forward with a long needle.

"If you struggle we will be forced to put you under." She said pleasantly, trying to insert the needle into Thorin's arm.

The King-In-Exile gritted his teeth and thrashed about, trying to stop the woman from inserting the thing into his arm, but the man stabbed him from the other side with something else and he suddenly felt very woozy. Thorin watched through half closed eyes as the woman taped a needle to his arm, attaching it to a plastic bag on the other side.

He frowned as he watched his blood flow through the tube into the bag.

That was not good.

The woman proceeded to strip and photograph Thorin's whole body, redressing him in strange and vulgar clothes.

"These are prison garments, if you can hear me. Even if you could escape, you would be carted straight back to a jail in this dashing suit." The man laughed coldly, slapping Thorin across the face for good measure.

As hard as he fought to stay awake, Thorin was asleep before the man even left the room.

The next thing he knew he was laying on a strange surface, his arms suspended behind him.

_"…no cameras?" _a distant voice was asking.

_"Only on the exits. I film many of my experiments but security cameras are out of the question. I trust my general guard well enough, but not that well, if the footage was ever to get out...no, it is safer here _without _cameras."_

Thorin blinked awake and shook his head, trying to dispel the voices, but he soon realised that they were not figments of his imagination, but real voices.

"Finally." The second man sighed. "I was starting to think you would never wake, Thorin Oakenshield."

"Who are you?" Thorin asked tightly, shaking his head again.

"Me?" the man chuckled coldly. "I expect you've heard about me from dear little Kíli. I am Silas."

Thorin's eyes narrowed at the man but he just rolled his eyes.

"Get up."

Thorin forced his muscles to obey, more for the sake of his aching limbs than for the sake of the man in the grey suit. He was on a piece of machinery that he had never seen before, handcuffed to the frames with enough slack to manoeuvre his arms just a little. Several tubes and cables were attached to his arms and chests, but he could not quite reach them.

"Bring him in." Silas announced and Thorin looked up as the door opened and Dwalin was dragged in and thrust to the floor by two incredibly muscular men.

Thorin's oldest friend was in the same garish orange clothes as Thorin, but Dwalin's were speckled with blood drops of varying sizes. Though he hid it well, Thorin was shocked and infuriated to see that Dwalin's hair and beard had been shaved to no more than stubble, a severe insult in itself, which showed all of the wounds on his head all the more. It looked like someone had used Dwalin's head for carving practise, with more than a dozen cuts and gauges of varying brutality, many of which were still seeping blood. In spite of all the injuries there was a familiar fiery hatred in Dwalin's eyes as he glared up from the floor at the men now holding two guns in his face.

Silas clapped his hands together. "Now, this is a little endurance test, it will take as long as you let it. You, Thorin, are going to run. When you slow or stop, Jason over here with use his Taser to shock Dwalin. Understand?"

Thorin and Dwalin exchanged glances but both nodded slowly. One of the men pulled a tube from the side of the machine and put it in the corner of Thorin's mouth.

"Push this button-" he pressed a little remote control into Thorin's hands "-for water."

The machine beneath Thorin started to move and he stumbled to the sound of the men laughing, but his feet quickly found a rhythm and he started to run.

Four miserable days later, he was still cursing the endurance given to him by Mahal. If he had been a man or a halfling, he could have collapsed of exhaustion long ago but no, his burning limbs had to keep going. True to Silas' word, Jason shocked Dwalin whenever he so much as stumbled, and each time his friend's clenched teeth and muffled groan pushed Thorin's exhausted limbs further.

Finally Silas nodded at the men, one of whom walked across and flicked a switch on the machine which slowed to a stop. Thorin's weak legs gave way beneath him and he crashed to the floor with a pained grunt. His arms almost jarred out of their sockets until the two men released the handcuffs. Thorin used all of his might to push himself up off of the floor, but he found himself being dragged away, a needle pricking into his skin and the world went black.

When he woke again, he was alone.

With a groan, Thorin glanced out of the tiny window above his head. He guessed that it was the fifth day since his capture but he couldn't be sure. All he knew was that they left him largely alone – pushing a single tray of food through the door and taking blood samples again as the sun went down.

Once again he fought against the nurse and once again he was drugged. He knew that the fighting was useless – he fought more on principal than anything else.

Thorin was sucked quickly into unconsciousness but when he woke he was not alone, and cheerful whistling filled his ears. Instead of opening his eyes wide he half opened them and peered through his eyelashes at a young man who was leaning over him, straight razor in hand, and applying some foamy substance to his cheek.

Thorin burst up in less than a second, grabbing the razor from the man's hand and holding it to his throat with a low growl.

"Utter a single sound and I _will _slit your throat. Do you understand me?"

The man nodded shakily, his cheerful whistle fading away.

"Are you alone?" Thorin hissed. The man shook his head, and the terror shining out of his young eyes created a slight twinge of guilt in Thorin that he would deal with later. "You have a guard? How many, one, two?"

The man held up one shaky finger and Thorin reached into the man's open bag with his spare hand, pulling out a familiar syringe.

"Is this fatal?" he growled, and when the man shook his head Thorin dropped the razor, clamping his hand over the man's mouth and stabbing the needle into his arm. For a moment the man struggled but he was no match for the furious dwarf, even after days in captivity, and defeat shone out of the man's eyes seconds before they hazed over and his entire body went limp.

Thorin grabbed the razor and waited a moment, pinching the limp figure beneath him to ensure that his unconsciousness was not feigned. Taking another identical syringe he, moved to the door of his cell and peered out between the bars, opening it silently and sneaking behind the lone security guard and thrusting the needle into his neck, his hand muffling any noises the man could have made.

In moments the man slumped and Thorin dragged him into the cell. In a few moments he formulated a sketchy plan, and began to swap clothes with the security guard. In less than five minutes the young man was tied to the security guard, both of whom were gagged and unconscious.

He slipped out of the cell and walked up to the door, but when he got there, there was no handle. Worried, he started to feel around the edges of the door to try and see how it opened, but whatever he did, it did not budge. There was a little rectangle with a slit in it on the side of the door and he tried pushing it, shaking it and pulling it, but nothing happened.

Thorin groaned in frustration and whirled around, but there were no other exits, not even a window.

_The guard must have had a way of getting out…_

Thorin's hands moved to his waistline and he felt the small card hanging from his belt.

_What is this? _He thought, turning it over in his fingers. _It could be one of those cr…cremit, no credit cards, yes, that's what they're called. But this does not look like the one that Joe showed me, it has a face on…that's the guards face! So what is it? _

He glanced at the little rectangle, then back at the card. Peering into the slit, Thorin could just about see little lights and inside. So it was electic – no, electric, then.

Straining to remember what he had been told about electricity – or more accurately what was useful _now _– Thorin turned the card over and over in his hand and studied the uniform writing on it.

_Employee ID and Key Card _was inscribed at the top in bold letters.

_Key card? _

He pushed it into the slit in the rectangle. It fit, but nothing happened. Almost yelling in anger, Thorin shook the card desperately up and down, and to his absolute amazement the door slid open.

"Oh," he glanced down at the card curiously, but did not linger for long. Pulling the security guard's cap down low over his face, he moved almost silently through a strange, clinical corridor.

The first door he came across looked exactly like the one he had come from. Wondering if his friends were inside, Thorin slipped the card through the slit thing and to his self-satisfaction the door opened.

A guard behind it turned in shock, his mouth opening as he looked at Thorin, who instantly smacked him over the head with a metal thing attached to his belt.

"Carlos?" A voice asked worriedly and Thorin burst into the room, using the metal thing as a weapon. There was only one other guard and Thorin took him down in seconds, before striding over to the cell he had been standing in front of.

He let out a small sigh of relief. "Dwalin, are you alright?"

His friend looked up from the floor, a grin spreading across his bruised and swollen face. "Thorin…"

Anger swelled in Thorin as he realised how badly Dwalin's condition had worsened since he had been dragged away. He tried to open the door, but it was locked, and this door had a keyhole instead of a card sliding thing.

"Thorin? Dwalin?" A familiar voice croaked and Thorin noted another cell tucked away in the corner with a start.

Hands appeared on the bars and Thorin looked at Nori in shock. Like Dwalin, Nori appeared to have had an unwanted haircut and with a clean-shaven chin without his trademark starry hairdo he hardly appeared to be Nori at all.

What sent chills down Thorin's spine, though, was the bandage wound tightly around Nori's eyes.

"Nori! Are you hurt?" Thorin asked with due leaderly concern.

The thief gave a dark chuckle. "You could say that, but I don't rightly know. I don't really feel anything much…All I know is that I can't see."

As Nori's voice trembled Thorin frowned. "You do have a bandage around your eyes…"

Nori grinded his teeth together. "No. I _can't see." _

Thorin watched in horror as Nori unwrapped the bandages. His open eyes were completely unresponsive and sightless, and Thorin's words stuck in his throat. "Ah…"

Nori nodded, winding the bandage back around his head. "More comfortable this way…What's going on, anyway?"

"I have no idea." Thorin admitted. "I saw an opportunity, I took it."

Cursing, Thorin turned. Nori was just the person you wanted in this situation – he could pick locks like the best of them – but Nori was apparently blind. If blood lust was not already burning in Thorin's veins it was now.

"I take it the guards are down?" Nori asked carefully.

Thorin nodded before realising that Nori could not see him. "Yes."

"Alright then." Nori said in an annoyingly casual tone. "What are we waiting for?"

"We can't eat iron, you know." Dwalin snapped and Nori laughed.

His hands moved deftly to the lock of his own cell and he reached into the pocket of his orange jumpsuit, removing a thin metal instrument.

"Where did you get that?" Thorin asked in disbelief as Nori successfully picked the lock.

"I made it." Nori stated simply. "Out of things they'd leave behind, needles 'n things."

"I see. Can you do Dwalin's?"

Nori nodded without hesitation. "Where is it?"

Thorin led Nori over to the heavy padlock and in minutes Dwalin was flexing his muscles outside of his cell.

"Now-"

"Footsteps!" Nori hissed, pointing at the door Thorin had come through.

Thorin cursed and they moved out of the second door quickly, finding themselves in another long corridor.

"You do have a plan, right laddie?"

Thorin stared at Dwalin. "This is the plan."

"Try this door." Dwalin suggested, and for lack of any better ideas, the trio followed his instruction.

Once again Thorin surprised the guard with the heavy metal object he had yet to place a name to. Nori let out a low whistle.

"That sounded painful."

Thorin and Dwalin raced to the cell inside and looked at Bifur as a siren started to wail.

The change in Bifur was even more evident than in Nori or Dwalin. As of yet, Thorin was the only one to have avoided the haircut but while Bifur's hair was very short he still had his beard, but the axe that had been embedded in his head for almost a decade was gone. Bifur himself was either asleep or unconscious on the floor, a neat line of stiches in his head across the large scar where the axe used to be.

"Any time today, Nori." Dwalin growled as the thief fumbled with the lock.

Nori turned to argue but Thorin snapped at him. "We haven't got time for this! Bifur!"

To everyone's dismay, Bifur hardly stirred, and as soon as Nori had unlocked the door Thorin and Dwalin pushed through and shook Bifur roughly. When he still did not stir, they looped his arms over their shoulders and started to move out.

"Ah, ah, ah, where do you think you're going?" Jason, the man that had tasered Dwalin, stood int heir way, blocking the exit with a smug grin. "You're not getting out of here on my watch, though I have to say I'm impressed you all found each other."

"What do you mean?" Thorin said with a sinking feeling and the man rolled his eyes.

"You didn't think we'd keep you all in the same facility, did you? Jeez, are you stupid or what?" the man laughed, and Thorin's heart sank.

The wall behind them exploded and men with guns burst through the open wall, the sudden wind whipping Thorin's hair around his face.

A thought flitted into his head, a crazy, stupid idea, but an idea nonetheless.

"Dwalin?" he muttered out of the corner of his mouth.

"Aye?"

"Do you trust my instincts?"

If he was surprised by the barely audible question, he did not show it. "As much as my own."

Thorin nodded slowly.

Jason frowned. "What, what did you say?"

"I told them to harper."

Behind him, Dwalin took all of Bifur's weight and Nori tensed.

"What?" Jason laughed uncertainly.

Thorin repeated the phrase calmly. "Harper."

"It's a code isn't it, it's a fucking code-"

To those words, the three conscious dwarves sprinted their retreat, carrying their unconscious companion.

When Silas returned and killed Jason for his failures, he would listen in anger to how the only dwarves still being held in Spain ran straight through a haze of smoke and bullets, somehow magically managing to reach the gate on the other side in good enough form to escape.

However, when Silas returned, he would still be unaware of earth playing host to a certain meddlesome wizard.

**Mwahahahaha, you don't know what happened to Kíli and Fíli yet! Na na na na naaaa naaa! :P **

**So what do you think? This chapter was supposed to be a little vague on purpose but do tell if it was too vague. Thanks for reading, please leave a review! **


	9. Chapter 9: The Shot From the Dark

**I am soooo sorry about the wait, this chapter's been really hard to write, I kept getting stuck :(**

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Nine # The Shot From the Dark #**

The world blurred in front of Kíli's eyes, his brother's shocked face the only thing he could see clearly. Acute pain passed in a spasm across his heart and he stopped breathing, his mind both racing and stopping at the same time.

The single most important word in the world was wrenched from his lips as he screamed in terror.

_"Fíli!" _

His big brother collapsed to the ground clutching his gut with an expression of utter agony.

The cold metal of the gun was still pressing into his head, but Kíli couldn't care anymore. A threat to his own life meant nothing anymore, and he smashed his elbows back into the woman's stomach, racing forward toward and crashing to his knees by his brother's side.

"Fíli!" he gasped, grabbing his brother's shoulder. Fíli's usually bright eyes fluttered open and searched for Kíli's tearful brown ones.

"Ow…" Fíli spluttered, staring through at fingers and the blood bubbling through them.

"We had to be certain that you were telling us the truth." A man's voice declared, and the apparent owner of the voice stepped out of the darkness of the back of the cave and he turned to the woman. "I don't think they know where he is, Elena. We're still a step or two ahead of him."

The woman, Elena, nodded. "Good."

"You…you bastard!" Elsie's voice shook and she ran to the two brothers, Rico cowering behind her crying quietly.

"Yeah, yeah." The man looked bored. "Okay, we're leaving. Now."

"Kíli…" Fíli whimpered. "Kíli, h-help me!"

Kíli let out a small cry, his heart pounding heavily in his chest. "I'll…I'll…I…I'll look after you, Fee, you'll be alright, I promise."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep." The woman had the nerve to yawn, and anger joined the inferno of fear and pain already devouring Kíli's heart. "You'll only cry about it later. Now, let me put him out of his misery."

Fíli cried out in fear, his voice already saturated with fear and Kíli screamed _"no!", _throwing himself over Fíli protectively.

"Leave it, Elena, he'll bleed out soon enough, and you can't kill the little one anyway, now." The man nodded. "Just finish your mission and we'll grab them and go."

Elena nodded and peered around Elsie at Rico, speaking in fluent Spanish. "Si sales ahora, te prometo que todo esto va a ser mayor. Usted no sentirá ningún tipo de dolor, nadie te hará daño nunca más. Vas a ver a tu madre de nuevo, y tu papá. Estarás de vuelta con su hermana y todo lo que será seguro y feliz juntos."

Rico gave a small wail and hid behind Elsie, who had ripped off her woollen top and was bundling it up, putting pressure on Fíli's bleeding abdomen.

"What did you say to him?" she demanded of the woman over Fíli's pained shriek.

"Elena explained how if he comes out now, he won't have to hurt anymore. He'll die quickly and painlessly, and be with his mother and father and sister-"

"Like hell!" Elsie growled, shifting to shield him a little more.

The man rolled his eyes and another gunshot rocketed through the air.

Terrified, Kíli pressed himself down over Fíli, trying to protect both his brother and himself.

Elena screamed and doubled over, clutching at her chest. "Toby, I'm hit!"

Several more bangs ricocheted around the cave and Toby groaned. "They've fucking caught up, fuck! Plan B, Elena!"

The woman nodded, running towards the exit of the cave, taking the light of her torch with her and plunging the cave into blackness.

"K…Kíli…" Fíli choked, grabbing a hold of Kíli's hand. "Love…you…"

"Fee-" Kíli sobbed, but suddenly the man he could hear walking past grabbed him and dragged him backwards out of the cave. "Fíli! No, no, Fíli!"

"Kíli!" Fíli screamed, his brother's name pouring out repeatedly between sobs of pain. "Kíli, Kíli, Kee!"

"Fíli!" Kíli screeched, smashing his fists and feet into the man dragging him away. Another gunshot cracked out and the man cursed, falling to the floor and releasing Kíli, who smashed his foot into where he thought the man's face should be and scrambled back into the cave.

"Kee!" Fíli wailed and Kíli followed the sound of his brothers voice.

He tripped over some unseen obstacle, smashing onto the floor, but he crawled the rest of the way to his bleeding brother.

"Fee!"

"Kíli?" Fíli cried in pained relief.

"I'm here." Kíli tried to calm his shaking voice but it still trembled. "Fíli, you're gonna be okay, right Elsie?"

"I…I hope so." The girl whispered, and Kíli felt Fíli's bloody hand slide into his.

A beam of torchlight shone into the cave and Kíli flinched away.

"Rico, push the down, hard." Elsie moved the boy's hands onto the shirt and Fíli cried out as the boy increased the pressure.

"You're hurting him!" Kíli protested weakly, but Elsie interrupted him.

"If you don't, Rico, he'll just keep bleeding. Trust me, Kíli."

Kíli sobbed but nodded, stroking Fíli's hair away from his sweaty forehead. His brother's face was contorted with pain and his body shook with raspy sobs.

Elsie stood in front of the three boys protectively as a silhouette appeared in the cave's entrance. "Who's there?"

"Els?"

"Joe!" Elsie cried in relief and confusion. "Joe, we're in trouble, Fíli's hurt."

"We know, we saw." Joe said gravelly, and several familiar figures followed him into the cave. The first pushed past him, ran into the cave and crouched next to Kíli.

"Thorin…" Fíli whispered in utter relief as he saw the figure's face, lifting up the hand that wasn't clenching Kíli's, his tips twitching into a smile that became more of a grimace.

Thorin's mouth smiled but it didn't reach his eyes as he took Fíli's shaking and bloodied hand in his own palm. "Fíli…Kíli…Oh, I'm so sorry…"

"Thorin!" Kíli whimpered, leaning into his uncle with wide eyes.

Thorin wrapped his other arm around Kíli's shoulders, drawing the other child in close with a strong arm, relief flowing through his veins as his sister-son pressed further into his side.

"Uncle, I'm scared." Fíli whimpered and Kíli let out a keening sob that pierced Thorin's heart.

"Don't be scared." he said softly, squeezing Fíli's hand with unusual gentleness. "I'm here."

Fíli nodded shakily and Thorin looked up for a moment. "Joe-"

The man Thorin had come to trust looked up. "The air ambulance will be here any minute."

"See, you'll be alright." Thorin's smile almost reached his eyes and Fíli swallowed.

The blue eyes filled with tears and he glanced at Kíli as if he didn't want his little brother to hear his next words. "I…I…"

"What's wrong?" Thorin pressed gently and Fíli's lips trembled. "You can tell me, Fíli. What's wrong?"

"I…I…I can't feel my legs, Uncle Thorin, I can't feel my legs!"

Kíli wailed and Thorin squeezed his shoulder. "Hush, Kíli. It's alright, Fíli, believe me, you're going to be alright."

Fíli sobbed in pain and fear but nodded, squeezing Thorin's hand tightly.

The now familiar sound of an advancing helicopter entered Thorin's consciousness. The crowd gathered around the door parted, allowing men with stretchers to enter the cave. Try as he might, Kíli couldn't drag his face away from Fíli long enough to concentrate on what Elsie and Thorin were saying to the men.

_Fee's been shot, Fee's been shot, Fee's been shot..._the words circled around and around in his mind, along with the terrifying idea that Fíli was dying. _Fee's dying, Fee's dying, Fee's…dying? _

Not even falling down and down and down, so alone, with the terrible knowledge that death was sure to end his fall was as horrifying as this fear. Nothing was as petrifying as this fear, the fear that Fíli could die.

"Fee..." He mewled liked a pathetic drowned kitten, his lip trembling like a leaf in a hurricane as he tried to pull himself together.

"Alright, let's move him." One of the medics declared, and Kíli clung to Fíli's hand as they lifted him onto a stretcher.

Fíli cried with the pain through gritted teeth but he didn't protest or squirm.

"You're gonna have to let go of his hand now, darl." A female medic told Kíli, and he screamed as Dwalin pulled him away.

"No, please, Fíli!" he begged, but Dwalin held him firm.

"We can take two _adults_ in the helicopter."

Thorin nodded at the medic, putting a hand on Kíli's arm as Tashi wordlessly moved to the front of the cave with him. "I'll see you at the hospital, Kíli. I love you."

"Uncle Thorin-" Kíli's breaking voice broke Thorin's heart all over again but he pressed a kiss onto the child's forehead and looked up at Dwalin who nodded.

"I'll look after him."

"Uncle Thorin, _please!" _

With a last glance at Kíli and a heavy heart Thorin turned his back on his youngest nephews' desperate implorations and ran towards the helicopter.

"No, Thorin!" Fíli moaned as Thorin reached his side. "Kíli needs you, please! He's scared, Thorin..."

_But you're dying..._Thorin thought brokenly. Instead he swallowed. "Fíli, I need to be with you. Kíli is fine-"

"No!" Fíli's fierce reply shocked Thorin to dumbness, but when Fíli spoke again his voice was weak, and he had never appeared to be so vulnerable. "Thorin I need Kíli to be okay!"

The begging broke Thorin and he nodded, yelling "Dwalin!" and taking Fíli's hand as the paramedics started to attach the stretcher to the helicopter. "I will see you in the hospital, Fíli I promise you. I won't let either of you go, not again, I won't." He promised tearfully and quietly as his friend came running. "You are going to be alright, Fíli."

Fíli nodded and Dwalin looked at them both.

"Will you go with Fíli?" Thorin begged and Dwalin grimaced up at the helicopter.

"Thorin has to be with Kíli, Kíli needs him more." The feebleness of Fíli's voice made his declaration sound more like a plea and Dwalin nodded, unable to contain the slightly smug smile despite his obvious discomfort around the machine.

Thorin watched them disappear into the helicopter, retreating to the cave the moment the flashing lights disappeared.

Inside, Kíli was screaming at Bofur and Bifur who were apparently trying to stop him from running out of the cave after Dwalin.

"Fíli! _Fee!_ I hate you, I hate you! Let me go, this is all your fault - you told us to come here and now Fíli's-" Kíli sobbed and then screamed all the louder in Bofur's wretched face. "I hate you, I hate you!"

"Kíli!" Thorin interrupted sharply, knowing just as well as Bofur that Kíli did not mean what he said. After weeks of coping in this world, the loss of his brother had broken Kíli.

As Thorin watched, the anger dissipated entirely from Kíli's face and he collapsed wordlessly. Thorin was there in a flash, catching the exhausted child before he hit the floor.

The pieces of his heart broke further as Kíli burst into tears, clinging to Thorin as tightly as his exhausted body would allow, sobbing into his uncle's chest.

"Shh, shh…" Thorin murmured softly, though he did not expect the young boy to do so. He rocked back and forward slowly, murmuring nonsense words into Kíli's ear over and over until the boy's wails turned to sobs and his sobs turned to gaps and his gasps turned to sniffles. "There, there…"

"Uncle…Uncle…_Fíli…_"

"I'm here now." Thorin promised, trying to stop his voice from cracking. "I'm here now, Kíli, I've got you."

"Where were you?" Kíli pleaded, pulling away to look Thorin in the face. "Where _were_ you, you said you were coming, you said you were coming for us!"

Thorin pulled Kíli back close, resting his chin on the boy's dark hair. "I'm sorry, Kíli, I'm so sorry. I was…we were delayed, you could say."

"Why?" his nephew keened and Thorin sighed.

"We got captured."

Kíli gasped, pulling back to look at Thorin's face again, the worry in his eyes making Thorin smile wryly. "What, when? Are you okay?"

"The day we were caught they made me call and claim that there were complications." Thorin stroked Kíli's hair fondly. "I'll explain later, Kíli."

Kíli nodded reluctantly, reaching his hand up hesitantly to touch the side of Thorin's face. With a weary smile Thorin pressed the smaller hand to his face, cupping Kíli's own face with his other hand.

"I missed you, Kíli."

Kíli sniffed and looked down at the floor as if he didn't believe Thorin's words, and the older dwarf grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly.

"Kíli when you fell, and I thought that you were dead, when I thought I'd lost you forever…I have never felt such terrorising pain…I am so glad that you're alright."

"I'm glad to see you too!" Kíli whispered, flinging himself into Thorin's arms again. After a long moment Thorin stood up but Kíli didn't let go, wrapping his now dangling legs around Thorin's waist and then freezing almost hopefully.

Thorin didn't say anything; he just shifted his grip so that he was carrying Kíli like a toddler.

"We need to get to the hospital." he announced and the others nodded.

"The minibus is just on the road." Joe nodded, ushering the other two children out of the cave and towards said bus.

As they passed Bofur, Kíli looked over Thorin's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Bofur."

"I know, laddie."

Thorin carried his nephew up to the minibus, fear for Fíli burning in his heart, though the fire was weakened by the sheer relief and joy that he felt from Kíli's presence alone. The second he sat down in the mini bus his frightened nephew was snuggling so close that he was practically in his lap.

"Bofur?" Kíli sniffed. "Where were you?"

The miner sighed from the seat behind. "Thorin called us, told is where we he was, and we came to get you but you weren't on the beach so Jake and I drove to pick Thorin up. Took a good hour and a half just to get there, and by the time we got back it was already dark and the office had burnt itself out so we knew you'd been back. We went straight to the cave."

"Where's…where's my gran?" Elsie asked timidly, as if she did not want to hear the answer.

"We think they took her." Joe said gravelly as he started the minibus.

Elsie moaned and pulled Rico closer but she swallowed. "The note said to go to America, why?"

"Your father is the only person your grandmother trusts you with." Bofur said quietly. "She said your mother is less capable of defending herself…"

The girl nodded, snuggling up to the little boy in the backseat and letting herself cry quietly.

"Uncle Thorin?" Kíli asked quietly, so quietly that Thorin only just caught the words.

"Yes?" he murmured back.

"Do you think I'm too old to call you Uncle Thorin?"

Thorin chuckled softly. "No, Kíli."

"Uncle Thorin?"

"Yes?"

"Is…am I…are we going to lose Fee?"

Thorin pressed a kiss into Kíli's hair. "No, we're not. I promise."

Inside, Thorin cursed, fear churning his stomach sickeningly as his own words whirled around his mind.

_Don't make promises you can't keep. _

Thorin closed his eyes in a silent prayer to whoever was listening.

_Let me keep this promise. Please, please, don't let me break this promise. _

The buzzing of a phone jarred Thorin from the painful track of thought about half an hour later and he looked up as the driving Joe passed Jake the mobile.

"Jake!"

The man blinked, wordlessly passing the phone back to Thorin who reluctantly answered it.

"Hello?"

_"Thomas, it's Dwayne." _

Recognising Dwalin's voice, Thorin stiffened in anticipation. "Any news?"

Five minutes later his trembling fingers ended the call and Kíli looked up at him expectantly.

"Fíli has been taken into surgery. They had to give him some of Dwalin's blood, Tashi made something up about blood types."

As Joe nodded in understanding, Kíli wrinkled his nose. "Why would he want Dwalin's blood?"

The man driving explained it simply enough before adding a little tentatively. "Has Ori called yet?"

"No." Thorin checked the phone – _his _phone – to be sure. "But we were not expecting his call for a while yet."

"Right." Joe nodded.

"Where is Ori, and all the others?"

"Ori, Óin and Bombur are making their way here now from Germany with a friend of mine called Dmitri, and Glóin, Balin and Dori are being accompanied by Gandalf and a woman called Delyse from Switzerland. Though, saying that, we will have to meet them elsewhere, the safe house isn't safe anymore." Joe explained, and Kíli frowned.

"How did that happen?"

"We were separated." Thorin said needlessly. "When we were unconscious."

"Is that why you all have weird haircuts?"

Thorin prodded Kíli's nose, under which a cheeky grin was trying to shine. "Indeed it is. Though I was able to overpower my 'hairdresser'."

"I like your hair, Nori." Kíli said quietly. "It's cool."

The dwarf grinned. "Well, I'm glad you think so. I can't see it."

"What?" Kíli's eyes bulged. "Why?"

"I'm blind." Nori's nonchalant voice did not reflect his attitude on the matter, as Thorin knew very well.

Kíli's mouth dropped open. "Oh…"

Thorin's nephew was silent for the rest of the journey, and when they finally reached the hospital he still did not speak. He just clung to Thorin's hand as if he was but a toddler and followed Joe and Elsie into the hospital.

They were led to an empty waiting room and Joe spoke to Thorin quietly. "You know the police will want to talk to us."

Thorin sighed. "What must we do?"

"Stick with what we taught you and everything will be alright." Joe nodded, smiling briefly at Dwalin as he entered the room.

Hours passed and Thorin waited. While he paced up and down the waiting room enough times to wear away the floor, Kíli curled up into a ball on one of the chairs and stared into space, not moving a muscle. Fatigue clouded his nephew's eyes but Kíli barely even blinked. At one point the nurse came over and offered him a pillow which he took gratefully, sinking his head into the feathery cushion with a soft sigh, and Thorin assumed that he went the sleep.

He glanced over the room at six in the morning, after pacing almost the whole night through. Rico was asleep leaning on Elsie, who was leaning on Jake, and all three were fast asleep. Dwalin's eyes were closed but his stiff posture hinted that he was awake… Nori was snoozing lightly in a chair in the far corner, and Bifur and Bofur had slept in the night but now were murmuring quietly to each other in the other corner. Joe was snoring lightly, though Thorin guessed that it would not take much to rouse the man.

Thorin looked back at Kíli, surprised to see the big brown eyes wide open.

"By Durin, Kíli, did you not sleep at all?" Thorin murmured, sitting down next to his sister-son and stroking his hair gently.

Kíli pushed his hand away gently. "No."

"Kíli-"

"I don't want to sleep. Not until I know Fee's okay."

Thorin smiled wryly. "Fíli will be furious with me if he wakes up and you're half dead with exhaustion."

Kíli's eyes filled with tears but he brushed them away, widening the big brown orbs fractionally. "Every time I close my eyes I see him falling…"

Thorin opened his mouth to reply when a nurse walked in, looking startled to see Thorin still awake. She spoke to the receptionist quietly and then approached Thorin, who stood up quickly.

"Thomas Oakley?"

"Yes."

"And you're Finnley Durrant's uncle and guardian?"

"I am, is he alright?"

The nurse swallowed. "You may want to sit down."

Kíli swallowed, shifting in his seat and he looked up at Thorin, whose patience was wearing thin.

"Is he alive?"

The nurse glanced at Kíli. "You may want to hear this before-"

Kíli whimpered desperately, standing up at clutching at Thorin's coat. Thorin put his arm over Kíli and drew him close, his stomach churning sickeningly and his heart pounding fast.

"Please, just tell me." Thorin swallowed.

"Finnley is alive." The nurse began and Kíli gave a breathless laugh.

"The doctor will be able to tell you more, but the bullet missed the vital organs. Unfortunately, the swelling around his spine is likely to cause paralysis-"

"I don't understand your words." Thorin interrupted, too tired to listen to worse medical jargon than even Óin's.

"There is a seventy per cent chance that Finnley will never walk again."

**Okay, not sure if I like that but I have some ideas for the next chapter, any prompts could help though. **

**_Please _****review, it means the world to me :)**

**I am soooo sorry about the wait, this chapter's been really hard to write, I kept getting stuck :(**

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Nine # The Shot From the Dark #**

The world blurred in front of Kíli's eyes, his brother's shocked face the only thing he could see clearly. Acute pain passed in a spasm across his heart and he stopped breathing, his mind both racing and stopping at the same time.

The single most important word in the world was wrenched from his lips as he screamed in terror.

_"Fíli!" _

His big brother collapsed to the ground clutching his gut with an expression of utter agony.

The cold metal of the gun was still pressing into his head, but Kíli couldn't care anymore. A threat to his own life meant nothing anymore, and he smashed his elbows back into the woman's stomach, racing forward toward and crashing to his knees by his brother's side.

"Fíli!" he gasped, grabbing his brother's shoulder. Fíli's usually bright eyes fluttered open and searched for Kíli's tearful brown ones.

"Ow…" Fíli spluttered, staring through at fingers and the blood bubbling through them.

"We had to be certain that you were telling us the truth." A man's voice declared, and the apparent owner of the voice stepped out of the darkness of the back of the cave and he turned to the woman. "I don't think they know where he is, Elena. We're still a step or two ahead of him."

The woman, Elena, nodded. "Good."

"You…you bastard!" Elsie's voice shook and she ran to the two brothers, Rico cowering behind her crying quietly.

"Yeah, yeah." The man looked bored. "Okay, we're leaving. Now."

"Kíli…" Fíli whimpered. "Kíli, h-help me!"

Kíli let out a small cry, his heart pounding heavily in his chest. "I'll…I'll…I…I'll look after you, Fee, you'll be alright, I promise."

"Don't make promises that you can't keep." The woman had the nerve to yawn, and anger joined the inferno of fear and pain already devouring Kíli's heart. "You'll only cry about it later. Now, let me put him out of his misery."

Fíli cried out in fear, his voice already saturated with fear and Kíli screamed _"no!", _throwing himself over Fíli protectively.

"Leave it, Elena, he'll bleed out soon enough, and you can't kill the little one anyway, now." The man nodded. "Just finish your mission and we'll grab them and go."

Elena nodded and peered around Elsie at Rico, speaking in fluent Spanish. "Si sales ahora, te prometo que todo esto va a ser mayor. Usted no sentirá ningún tipo de dolor, nadie te hará daño nunca más. Vas a ver a tu madre de nuevo, y tu papá. Estarás de vuelta con su hermana y todo lo que será seguro y feliz juntos."

Rico gave a small wail and hid behind Elsie, who had ripped off her woollen top and was bundling it up, putting pressure on Fíli's bleeding abdomen.

"What did you say to him?" she demanded of the woman over Fíli's pained shriek.

"Elena explained how if he comes out now, he won't have to hurt anymore. He'll die quickly and painlessly, and be with his mother and father and sister-"

"Like hell!" Elsie growled, shifting to shield him a little more.

The man rolled his eyes and another gunshot rocketed through the air.

Terrified, Kíli pressed himself down over Fíli, trying to protect both his brother and himself.

Elena screamed and doubled over, clutching at her chest. "Toby, I'm hit!"

Several more bangs ricocheted around the cave and Toby groaned. "They've fucking caught up, fuck! Plan B, Elena!"

The woman nodded, running towards the exit of the cave, taking the light of her torch with her and plunging the cave into blackness.

"K…Kíli…" Fíli choked, grabbing a hold of Kíli's hand. "Love…you…"

"Fee-" Kíli sobbed, but suddenly the man he could hear walking past grabbed him and dragged him backwards out of the cave. "Fíli! No, no, Fíli!"

"Kíli!" Fíli screamed, his brother's name pouring out repeatedly between sobs of pain. "Kíli, Kíli, Kee!"

"Fíli!" Kíli screeched, smashing his fists and feet into the man dragging him away. Another gunshot cracked out and the man cursed, falling to the floor and releasing Kíli, who smashed his foot into where he thought the man's face should be and scrambled back into the cave.

"Kee!" Fíli wailed and Kíli followed the sound of his brothers voice.

He tripped over some unseen obstacle, smashing onto the floor, but he crawled the rest of the way to his bleeding brother.

"Fee!"

"Kíli?" Fíli cried in pained relief.

"I'm here." Kíli tried to calm his shaking voice but it still trembled. "Fíli, you're gonna be okay, right Elsie?"

"I…I hope so." The girl whispered, and Kíli felt Fíli's bloody hand slide into his.

A beam of torchlight shone into the cave and Kíli flinched away.

"Rico, push the down, hard." Elsie moved the boy's hands onto the shirt and Fíli cried out as the boy increased the pressure.

"You're hurting him!" Kíli protested weakly, but Elsie interrupted him.

"If you don't, Rico, he'll just keep bleeding. Trust me, Kíli."

Kíli sobbed but nodded, stroking Fíli's hair away from his sweaty forehead. His brother's face was contorted with pain and his body shook with raspy sobs.

Elsie stood in front of the three boys protectively as a silhouette appeared in the cave's entrance. "Who's there?"

"Els?"

"Joe!" Elsie cried in relief and confusion. "Joe, we're in trouble, Fíli's hurt."

"We know, we saw." Joe said gravelly, and several familiar figures followed him into the cave. The first pushed past him, ran into the cave and crouched next to Kíli.

"Thorin…" Fíli whispered in utter relief as he saw the figure's face, lifting up the hand that wasn't clenching Kíli's, his tips twitching into a smile that became more of a grimace.

Thorin's mouth smiled but it didn't reach his eyes as he took Fíli's shaking and bloodied hand in his own palm. "Fíli…Kíli…Oh, I'm so sorry…"

"Thorin!" Kíli whimpered, leaning into his uncle with wide eyes.

Thorin wrapped his other arm around Kíli's shoulders, drawing the other child in close with a strong arm, relief flowing through his veins as his sister-son pressed further into his side.

"Uncle, I'm scared." Fíli whimpered and Kíli let out a keening sob that pierced Thorin's heart.

"Don't be scared." he said softly, squeezing Fíli's hand with unusual gentleness. "I'm here."

Fíli nodded shakily and Thorin looked up for a moment. "Joe-"

The man Thorin had come to trust looked up. "The air ambulance will be here any minute."

"See, you'll be alright." Thorin's smile almost reached his eyes and Fíli swallowed.

The blue eyes filled with tears and he glanced at Kíli as if he didn't want his little brother to hear his next words. "I…I…"

"What's wrong?" Thorin pressed gently and Fíli's lips trembled. "You can tell me, Fíli. What's wrong?"

"I…I…I can't feel my legs, Uncle Thorin, I can't feel my legs!"

Kíli wailed and Thorin squeezed his shoulder. "Hush, Kíli. It's alright, Fíli, believe me, you're going to be alright."

Fíli sobbed in pain and fear but nodded, squeezing Thorin's hand tightly.

The now familiar sound of an advancing helicopter entered Thorin's consciousness. The crowd gathered around the door parted, allowing men with stretchers to enter the cave. Try as he might, Kíli couldn't drag his face away from Fíli long enough to concentrate on what Elsie and Thorin were saying to the men.

_Fee's been shot, Fee's been shot, Fee's been shot..._the words circled around and around in his mind, along with the terrifying idea that Fíli was dying. _Fee's dying, Fee's dying, Fee's…dying? _

Not even falling down and down and down, so alone, with the terrible knowledge that death was sure to end his fall was as horrifying as this fear. Nothing was as petrifying as this fear, the fear that Fíli could die.

"Fee..." He mewled liked a pathetic drowned kitten, his lip trembling like a leaf in a hurricane as he tried to pull himself together.

"Alright, let's move him." One of the medics declared, and Kíli clung to Fíli's hand as they lifted him onto a stretcher.

Fíli cried with the pain through gritted teeth but he didn't protest or squirm.

"You're gonna have to let go of his hand now, darl." A female medic told Kíli, and he screamed as Dwalin pulled him away.

"No, please, Fíli!" he begged, but Dwalin held him firm.

"We can take two _adults_ in the helicopter."

Thorin nodded at the medic, putting a hand on Kíli's arm as Tashi wordlessly moved to the front of the cave with him. "I'll see you at the hospital, Kíli. I love you."

"Uncle Thorin-" Kíli's breaking voice broke Thorin's heart all over again but he pressed a kiss onto the child's forehead and looked up at Dwalin who nodded.

"I'll look after him."

"Uncle Thorin, _please!" _

With a last glance at Kíli and a heavy heart Thorin turned his back on his youngest nephews' desperate implorations and ran towards the helicopter.

"No, Thorin!" Fíli moaned as Thorin reached his side. "Kíli needs you, please! He's scared, Thorin..."

_But you're dying..._Thorin thought brokenly. Instead he swallowed. "Fíli, I need to be with you. Kíli is fine-"

"No!" Fíli's fierce reply shocked Thorin to dumbness, but when Fíli spoke again his voice was weak, and he had never appeared to be so vulnerable. "Thorin I need Kíli to be okay!"

The begging broke Thorin and he nodded, yelling "Dwalin!" and taking Fíli's hand as the paramedics started to attach the stretcher to the helicopter. "I will see you in the hospital, Fíli I promise you. I won't let either of you go, not again, I won't." He promised tearfully and quietly as his friend came running. "You are going to be alright, Fíli."

Fíli nodded and Dwalin looked at them both.

"Will you go with Fíli?" Thorin begged and Dwalin grimaced up at the helicopter.

"Thorin has to be with Kíli, Kíli needs him more." The feebleness of Fíli's voice made his declaration sound more like a plea and Dwalin nodded, unable to contain the slightly smug smile despite his obvious discomfort around the machine.

Thorin watched them disappear into the helicopter, retreating to the cave the moment the flashing lights disappeared.

Inside, Kíli was screaming at Bofur and Bifur who were apparently trying to stop him from running out of the cave after Dwalin.

"Fíli! _Fee!_ I hate you, I hate you! Let me go, this is all your fault - you told us to come here and now Fíli's-" Kíli sobbed and then screamed all the louder in Bofur's wretched face. "I hate you, I hate you!"

"Kíli!" Thorin interrupted sharply, knowing just as well as Bofur that Kíli did not mean what he said. After weeks of coping in this world, the loss of his brother had broken Kíli.

As Thorin watched, the anger dissipated entirely from Kíli's face and he collapsed wordlessly. Thorin was there in a flash, catching the exhausted child before he hit the floor.

The pieces of his heart broke further as Kíli burst into tears, clinging to Thorin as tightly as his exhausted body would allow, sobbing into his uncle's chest.

"Shh, shh…" Thorin murmured softly, though he did not expect the young boy to do so. He rocked back and forward slowly, murmuring nonsense words into Kíli's ear over and over until the boy's wails turned to sobs and his sobs turned to gaps and his gasps turned to sniffles. "There, there…"

"Uncle…Uncle…_Fíli…_"

"I'm here now." Thorin promised, trying to stop his voice from cracking. "I'm here now, Kíli, I've got you."

"Where were you?" Kíli pleaded, pulling away to look Thorin in the face. "Where _were_ you, you said you were coming, you said you were coming for us!"

Thorin pulled Kíli back close, resting his chin on the boy's dark hair. "I'm sorry, Kíli, I'm so sorry. I was…we were delayed, you could say."

"Why?" his nephew keened and Thorin sighed.

"We got captured."

Kíli gasped, pulling back to look at Thorin's face again, the worry in his eyes making Thorin smile wryly. "What, when? Are you okay?"

"The day we were caught they made me call and claim that there were complications." Thorin stroked Kíli's hair fondly. "I'll explain later, Kíli."

Kíli nodded reluctantly, reaching his hand up hesitantly to touch the side of Thorin's face. With a weary smile Thorin pressed the smaller hand to his face, cupping Kíli's own face with his other hand.

"I missed you, Kíli."

Kíli sniffed and looked down at the floor as if he didn't believe Thorin's words, and the older dwarf grabbed his shoulders and shook him lightly.

"Kíli when you fell, and I thought that you were dead, when I thought I'd lost you forever…I have never felt such terrorising pain…I am so glad that you're alright."

"I'm glad to see you too!" Kíli whispered, flinging himself into Thorin's arms again. After a long moment Thorin stood up but Kíli didn't let go, wrapping his now dangling legs around Thorin's waist and then freezing almost hopefully.

Thorin didn't say anything; he just shifted his grip so that he was carrying Kíli like a toddler.

"We need to get to the hospital." he announced and the others nodded.

"The minibus is just on the road." Joe nodded, ushering the other two children out of the cave and towards said bus.

As they passed Bofur, Kíli looked over Thorin's shoulder. "I'm sorry, Bofur."

"I know, laddie."

Thorin carried his nephew up to the minibus, fear for Fíli burning in his heart, though the fire was weakened by the sheer relief and joy that he felt from Kíli's presence alone. The second he sat down in the mini bus his frightened nephew was snuggling so close that he was practically in his lap.

"Bofur?" Kíli sniffed. "Where were you?"

The miner sighed from the seat behind. "Thorin called us, told is where we he was, and we came to get you but you weren't on the beach so Jake and I drove to pick Thorin up. Took a good hour and a half just to get there, and by the time we got back it was already dark and the office had burnt itself out so we knew you'd been back. We went straight to the cave."

"Where's…where's my gran?" Elsie asked timidly, as if she did not want to hear the answer.

"We think they took her." Joe said gravelly as he started the minibus.

Elsie moaned and pulled Rico closer but she swallowed. "The note said to go to America, why?"

"Your father is the only person your grandmother trusts you with." Bofur said quietly. "She said your mother is less capable of defending herself…"

The girl nodded, snuggling up to the little boy in the backseat and letting herself cry quietly.

"Uncle Thorin?" Kíli asked quietly, so quietly that Thorin only just caught the words.

"Yes?" he murmured back.

"Do you think I'm too old to call you Uncle Thorin?"

Thorin chuckled softly. "No, Kíli."

"Uncle Thorin?"

"Yes?"

"Is…am I…are we going to lose Fee?"

Thorin pressed a kiss into Kíli's hair. "No, we're not. I promise."

Inside, Thorin cursed, fear churning his stomach sickeningly as his own words whirled around his mind.

_Don't make promises you can't keep. _

Thorin closed his eyes in a silent prayer to whoever was listening.

_Let me keep this promise. Please, please, don't let me break this promise. _

The buzzing of a phone jarred Thorin from the painful track of thought about half an hour later and he looked up as the driving Joe passed Jake the mobile.

"Jake!"

The man blinked, wordlessly passing the phone back to Thorin who reluctantly answered it.

"Hello?"

_"Thomas, it's Dwayne." _

Recognising Dwalin's voice, Thorin stiffened in anticipation. "Any news?"

Five minutes later his trembling fingers ended the call and Kíli looked up at him expectantly.

"Fíli has been taken into surgery. They had to give him some of Dwalin's blood, Tashi made something up about blood types."

As Joe nodded in understanding, Kíli wrinkled his nose. "Why would he want Dwalin's blood?"

The man driving explained it simply enough before adding a little tentatively. "Has Ori called yet?"

"No." Thorin checked the phone – _his _phone – to be sure. "But we were not expecting his call for a while yet."

"Right." Joe nodded.

"Where is Ori, and all the others?"

"Ori, Óin and Bombur are making their way here now from Germany with a friend of mine called Dmitri, and Glóin, Balin and Dori are being accompanied by Gandalf and a woman called Delyse from Switzerland. Though, saying that, we will have to meet them elsewhere, the safe house isn't safe anymore." Joe explained, and Kíli frowned.

"How did that happen?"

"We were separated." Thorin said needlessly. "When we were unconscious."

"Is that why you all have weird haircuts?"

Thorin prodded Kíli's nose, under which a cheeky grin was trying to shine. "Indeed it is. Though I was able to overpower my 'hairdresser'."

"I like your hair, Nori." Kíli said quietly. "It's cool."

The dwarf grinned. "Well, I'm glad you think so. I can't see it."

"What?" Kíli's eyes bulged. "Why?"

"I'm blind." Nori's nonchalant voice did not reflect his attitude on the matter, as Thorin knew very well.

Kíli's mouth dropped open. "Oh…"

Thorin's nephew was silent for the rest of the journey, and when they finally reached the hospital he still did not speak. He just clung to Thorin's hand as if he was but a toddler and followed Joe and Elsie into the hospital.

They were led to an empty waiting room and Joe spoke to Thorin quietly. "You know the police will want to talk to us."

Thorin sighed. "What must we do?"

"Stick with what we taught you and everything will be alright." Joe nodded, smiling briefly at Dwalin as he entered the room.

Hours passed and Thorin waited. While he paced up and down the waiting room enough times to wear away the floor, Kíli curled up into a ball on one of the chairs and stared into space, not moving a muscle. Fatigue clouded his nephew's eyes but Kíli barely even blinked. At one point the nurse came over and offered him a pillow which he took gratefully, sinking his head into the feathery cushion with a soft sigh, and Thorin assumed that he went the sleep.

He glanced over the room at six in the morning, after pacing almost the whole night through. Rico was asleep leaning on Elsie, who was leaning on Jake, and all three were fast asleep. Dwalin's eyes were closed but his stiff posture hinted that he was awake… Nori was snoozing lightly in a chair in the far corner, and Bifur and Bofur had slept in the night but now were murmuring quietly to each other in the other corner. Joe was snoring lightly, though Thorin guessed that it would not take much to rouse the man.

Thorin looked back at Kíli, surprised to see the big brown eyes wide open.

"By Durin, Kíli, did you not sleep at all?" Thorin murmured, sitting down next to his sister-son and stroking his hair gently.

Kíli pushed his hand away gently. "No."

"Kíli-"

"I don't want to sleep. Not until I know Fee's okay."

Thorin smiled wryly. "Fíli will be furious with me if he wakes up and you're half dead with exhaustion."

Kíli's eyes filled with tears but he brushed them away, widening the big brown orbs fractionally. "Every time I close my eyes I see him falling…"

Thorin opened his mouth to reply when a nurse walked in, looking startled to see Thorin still awake. She spoke to the receptionist quietly and then approached Thorin, who stood up quickly.

"Thomas Oakley?"

"Yes."

"And you're Finnley Durrant's uncle and guardian?"

"I am, is he alright?"

The nurse swallowed. "You may want to sit down."

Kíli swallowed, shifting in his seat and he looked up at Thorin, whose patience was wearing thin.

"Is he alive?"

The nurse glanced at Kíli. "You may want to hear this before-"

Kíli whimpered desperately, standing up at clutching at Thorin's coat. Thorin put his arm over Kíli and drew him close, his stomach churning sickeningly and his heart pounding fast.

"Please, just tell me." Thorin swallowed.

"Finnley is alive." The nurse began and Kíli gave a breathless laugh.

"The doctor will be able to tell you more, but the bullet missed the vital organs. Unfortunately, the swelling around his spine is likely to cause paralysis-"

"I don't understand your words." Thorin interrupted, too tired to listen to worse medical jargon than even Óin's.

"There is a seventy per cent chance that Finnley will never walk again."

**Okay, not sure if I like that but I have some ideas for the next chapter, any prompts could help though. **

**_Please _****review, it means the world to me :)**


	10. Chapter 10: On The Road Again

**I am soooo sorry that it's been a while! Thanks for my reviews, but I got really stuck with writers block etc… plus I'm now back at school. This story is at a slightly lower priority than my other story "Where I Belong" but updates ****_should _****be quicker now. **

**I really, really hope that this chapter makes up for the wait, please let me know. Sorry for any mistakes as well. **

**Read. Enjoy. Review. **

**Chapter Ten # On The Road Again #**

"When can I see Fee?"

"Your brother's still unconscious, kiddo."

"I know, but when can I see him?"

The male police officer who had introduced himself as Jefferson sighed. "As soon as we're done."

"Are we done yet?" Kíli looked up at Thorin.

"We haven't even sat down." The female officer, whose surname was Scarlett, raised an eyebrow and Kíli sighed, sitting in the chair in the room that the police had set up for interviews.

"Alright..." he grumbled, swinging his legs impatiently.

"So, can you tell us what happened, Kyle?" Jefferson asked, trying to make his tone gentler.

He nodded and took a deep breath. "We wanted to check out the bat cave in the dark. Elsie took us. We were just looking and the man came in and..."

"And?" Scarlett probed gently.

"He...he was crazy, he started sh-shouting, he just shot Fee, for no reason, there wasn't a reason, he just shot him!" As Kíli started to cry Thorin took his hand and glared at the police officers, who pushed across a box of tissues.

"Have you ever seen this man before?"

"I don't know, I couldn't see his face." Kíli sniffed. "He was wearing a hood, and it all happened so quickly."

Jefferson nodded. "I understand. Did he say anything?"

"I don't think so but I'm not sure, it all happened so fast!" Kíli's voice wavered.

"Why did you want to see the cave?"

"We're on holiday, we thought it would be fun!" Kíli went pale and he turned to Thorin. "It was my idea, I thought we should go to the cave, this is all my fault, it's my fault that-"

"No, it isn't." Thorin instantly replied, pulling Kíli into his arms and rocking him gently. "This is not your fault."

"Can I please see Fee now? I'm so tired and I just want to see him, I need to know he's okay!" Kíli begged, and Thorin turned to the police.

The man sighed. "Can you think of anything else that you could tell us that might help us catch the man?"

"No, I was too worried about Fee to notice anything."

"Okay, this woman's from child services, she will take you through to see Finnley, alright?"

"I don't want to be with a stranger." Kíli whined softly and the police woman smiled at him.

"We only have a few more questions for your uncle and then he can join you." Kíli reluctantly followed the woman out into the hall.

Thorin looked at the woman and sighed.

"So, Mr Oakley, how long have you been your nephew's guardian?"

"A few months now." Thorin answered slowly. "Since my sister…since they lost their mother…"

"I'm sorry for your loss. How did it happen?" Scarlett asked, and Thorin's eyes flickered down to the table.

"An accident." Thorin wove his way around the truth skilfully.

"Where were you when this happened?"

"I was with Dwayne, Jake, Joe, Beau and Noel, oh and Blythe, we were driving up in the minivan to meet them at the cave."

"Why did you not go with them in the first place?"

Thorin glowered at the man, before staring at the table with a heavy sigh. "We asked Elsie to take them so we could finish our tea…It seems so stupid now…"

"Have you received any recent threats?"

"No, none at all."

"So you have no idea who could have been behind this attack?"

"No, not at all."

Scarlett nodded. "They have interesting nicknames, the boys…"

"What does that have to do with the attack?" Thorin frowned.

"Humour me, I'm curious."

"My sister and her husband were big fans of Tolkien; the boys have been Fíli and Kíli to their friends and family since they were born."

"That's very curious…you know you look a lot like Richard Armitage's Thorin Oakenshield…."

"Are you asking me if I'm a fictional dwarf who would have died in an alternate past three thousand years ago?" Thorin raised an eyebrow and Scarlett blushed as red as her name.

"No, of course not…"

"If that is all, I wish to return to Kyle and Finnley now. They need me."

"Of course, but we may need to get in touch." The police officers nodded and watched the man leave the room.

Jefferson sighed. So now there was a random psychopath going around shooting kids who belonged to a strangely Peter Jackson-esq cast of characters.

"This is going to be a long day…"

_~ The Hobbit ~_

"Well, that ties in with what your friends all said, so I just have a few more questions. May I ask how you became blind?"

Nori twirled his thumbs and leant back against his chair. He was quite enjoying this. "Accident at work."

"What was your profession?"

"I was a security guard at a research laboratory in Seville."

He heard the male guard lean forward. "Was that the Laboratory of Cerro-Amate?"

"It was." Nori sighed. "How did you know?"

"They're on trial for developing an acute chemical weapon that causes complete blindness with very few side effects."

"That is very interesting…" Nori mused.

"Is that how you became blind?"

"Probably." Nori nodded. "I'm not actually sure."

"Then it would interest you to know that they're developing a cure in America…"

"That does interest me." Nori sat forward in his chair.

"I would write the company's address down for you, but-"

"Oh, please do. I have friends to read things for me."

As the police continued to ask him questions, Nori leant back into the seat. So maybe he would not be kept in the dark in this strange world forever…

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Waking up in the hospital was a surreal experience, Fíli decided. The first few times his world was nothing more than a confusing mixture of blurred vision and distorted sounds.

Then his vision cleared and he saw Thorin and Kíli, the latter being fast asleep even while his uncle called for the nurse.

The doctor explained things the next time he woke.

Fíli didn't understand, not really, and he didn't want to. All he needed to know was that there was a sixty per cent chance that he would never ever walk again.

When they told him, he did not cry. In the days that followed, he did not cry.

He just thought, and knew.

He would never chase his little brother around the house, he would never hunt like his friends, he would never be a warrior like his uncle.

Whoever had heard of a paralysed dwarf? No one. There would be no place for Fíli in Ered Luin anymore, he could not mine, he could not hunt, he could not forge…

He would be a burden for the rest of his life.

"Fee? Did you hear me?" Kíli asked tentatively.

"Mmh?" Fíli replied vaguely, and Kíli hung his head.

"Why don't you listen to me?"

"What?"

"I'm trying to help, Fíli, you're not listening to me!"

"What can you do, Kíli?" Fíli snapped suddenly. "Blake and Tali are dead, Nori's blind, I'm _paralysed _and there's absolutely _nothing _you can do about any of it! We wouldn't even be here if-"

Kíli flinched. "If I wasn't so stupid…"

"That's not what I said-" Fíli started but Kíli shook his head.

"It's true…I just make everything worse…" Kíli whispered, tears spilling from his eyes as he scampered off of the chair by Fíli's bed, leaving his brother alone for the first time in days and ran out of the room.

"Kíli!" Fíli cried, reaching out for him. "Kíli, I'm sorry!"

Silence met Fíli's ears and he wailed like a baby.

"_Keeeeeleeeee!" _

The men were still out there, and though they'd been in the hospital a whole week with no sign of their attackers Fíli was filled with overwhelming terror when Kíli left his side, terror stronger than he'd dare to admit.

"Kíli!" he whispered. "What've I done, Kíli, I didn't mean it! I didn't mean it!"

With a grunt of determination, he pulled himself to the edge of the bed, steeling himself and then pushing himself over the edge. Crying out in pain as he smashed to the floor, Fíli sobbed, trying to drag himself to the door. He didn't know what he was doing, he didn't know where he was going, he just had to get to Kíli…

He had to.

Crawling was harder than he had anticipated without the use of his legs, and he cried out hopelessly as footsteps came closer and closer.

"Fíli! What the hell are you doing?" Thorin yelled, and Fíli cringed against the floor, sobbing.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I need to tell Kíli I'm sorry! I said some stupid things, I need to say I'm sorry!" he begged, sobbing bitterly against the floor.

"Oh, Fíli!" Thorin raced over, scooping Fíli up carefully from the floor. Gripping onto Thorin's shirt, Fíli wailed burying his face in his uncle's shoulder.

"I can't do it, Uncle, I can't do it!"

"I've got you, Fíli, I've got you." Thorin murmured, carrying Fíli over to the bed quietly and sitting down, shifting Fíli so that he was cradling him like a babe. "You don't have to do anything."

Fíli sobbed bitterly. "I'm so scared!"

"As am I."

Fíli looked up at Thorin and frowned. "Wha…what?"

"I'm afraid as well, but I'll look after you." Thorin rubbed Fíli's back soothingly. "You're going to be alright, Fíli."

"What if I never walk again?" Fíli whimpered. "What if-"

"You will." Thorin promised, rocking him gently. "You will."

A little face appeared at the door. "Fee?"

"Kíli!" Fíli gasped.

"Are you okay?" Kíli begged, hugging the doorpost.

"Yes-"

"Are you sure?"

"Yes but-"

"Are you still mad at me?"

Fíli whimpered. "No, never, Kíli-"

Kíli bounded across the room and leapt onto the bed, grabbing a hold of both Fíli and Thorin. He looked up and gasped. "Fee, what'd you do to your face?"

"He was trying to crawl across the floor."

"What?" Kíli yelped. "Why?"

"I had to say sorry!" Fíli begged. "I had to say sorry, Kíli, I'm sorry."

"I'm alright, Fíli, I understand, I do." Kíli promised. "Or at least I'm trying to."

"I know…"

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Kíli liked to look on the bright side of life. At the moment the bright side was more like the bright inch, but it was still there.

"You get to use _that? _Fíli, that's awesome!"

"It's a chair with wheels, Kíli." Fíli looked very apprehensive.

"Exactly!" Kíli cried happily, bounding up behind the wheelchair to the handles. "Can I push it?"

"No." Thorin pushed Kíli out of the way gently.

Kíli pouted. "Oh, but Uncle-"

"Not now, Kíli." Thorin protested, firmly pushing his younger nephew towards Dwalin, you put his hands on Kíli's shoulders.

Kíli could feel the tension radiating off of Dwalin in waves as the nurses navigated through the labyrinth of hospital tunnels. He knew that the adults were all on edge today – it was the first time any of them had left the hospital in days, the first time that they would not be covered.

Joe had left earlier in the morning to hire another minibus – this one with a space for the wheelchair. The plan, to Kíli's knowledge, consisted of Joe and Tashi remaining to search for Eliza in Australia on the off chance that the Agency had remained in the country, while Jake took the others to America to meet with another branch of the Readers and with Elsie's father.

Jake had suffered even more than Rico had when he discovered that his brother was dead. Blaming himself for Jake's inexperience, the man had scarcely uttered more than five sentences since the deaths of Tali and Blake. However, now he was Rico's legal guardian, and he had taken on the responsibility with silent determination. He drew comfort from the little boy, who in turn drew comfort from the man he knew so well.

"Careful, Kíli, don't be rash." Dwalin warned as Kíli made to move into the sunlight.

Kíli tried to roll his eyes, but his uncle's distant cousin clipped his ears.

"We've done well to avoid death and suspicion this far. Keep your head on, and you'll be fine."

Kíli sighed. "Okay."

To Kíli's absolute surprise, they breezed through the airport, Fíli's wheelchair status speeding them all through the entire system. As they waited to board the plane, he thought sadly about the last time he had boarded an international flight, and the way Natalia had struggled to get him onto the plane.

Driven by instinct, he moved over to Rico and gave him a big hug. If the younger boy was surprised, he didn't show it, hugging Kíli back tightly.

On the flight to America, Kíli could not get comfortable.

"Here." Thorin said quietly, lifting up the armrest between the two chairs and putting his arm around Kíli. "Lean on me."

Smiling, Kíli tucked his feet up onto the seat, peering over Thorin to look at Fíli, who was in the aisle chair. "Uncle?"

"Yes?"

"Is it safe?"

Thorin frowned. "Well…"

"I mean to sleep?" Kíli bit his lip, and Thorin drew him closer.

"Of course. You don't need to worry about that, just sleep, Kíli." Thorin insisted.

"Oh, I'm not tired. I'm just wondering." Kíli affirmed.

Flying was definitely not Kíli's favourite pastime. It was even more difficult given that Thorin had to help Fíli whenever he needed to go to the bathroom, and that their flight was plagued with yet more turbulence, though none as bad as the previous flight.

Nevertheless, Kíli liked to look on the bright side of life.

And there was something very funny about a great warrior like Dwalin clutching the seat with even more fear than Kíli had.

_~ The Hobbit ~_

Silas looked down at his feet at the dead man in distaste and turned to one of the two people in the world he trusted.

"Loki?"

"Yes?"

"They have failed us here, but the company are separated." Silas mused, and his younger brother grinned.

"I think they deserve a reunion, a proper reunion." Loki's voice dripped with delicious malice.

"So do I. Our portal plans are done?"

"Eve is all but finished." Loki nodded.

Silas laughed. "We're well on our way to completing our goal, Loki."

"I just have one question." Loki mused. "Can I do the honours?"

"Well…"

"Please!" Loki wheedled like a child.

Silas laughed, ruffling his younger brother's hair. "Alright. You can lead the quest to complete the company."

"Alright!" Loki beamed. "I'll go get my gun."

**I hope that was okay. Please review and let me know. **

**As much as I love writing this story, I really need to know what you think as my idea of where to go is a little muddled right now. Let me know what you wanna see next :) Thanks for reading!**


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